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ANACALYPSIS, 

OR, 

AN  INQUIRY  INTO  THE  ORIGIN 


OF 


LANGUAGES,  NATIONS,  AND  RELIGIONS. 


ANACALYPSIS, 


ATTEMPT  TO  DRAW  ASIDE  THE  VEIL 


OF 


OR, 


AN  INQUIRY  INTO  THE 


OF 


LANGUAGES,  NATIONS,  AND  RELIGIONS. 

Btf"  THE  LATE 

GODFREY    HIGGINS,    ESQ., 


,  F.R.ASIAT.SOC.,  F,R,AST,S., 
OF  SKBLLOV  GRANGE,  NEAR  DONCASTER. 


RES  VERBIS,    ET  VERBA  ACCENDUNT  LXTMINA    REBUS. 


VOL.  II. 


LONDON: 

LONGMAN,  REES,  ORME,  BROWN,  GREEN,  AND  LONGMAN,  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 

1836. 


PRINTED  BY  GEORGE   SMALLFIELDj  HACKNEY. 


PREFACE. 


THE  first  volume  of  this  work  was  finished  in  June,  1833,  -although  the  Title,  for  the 
sake  of  uniformity,  bears  the  date  of  1836*  The  second  volume  was  commenced;  and  it 
was  the  Author's  intention  to  have  proceeded  to  its  completion.  But,  having  attended 
The  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  held  that  year  at  Cambridge, 
he  wrote  thence  to  his  printer,  stating,  that  he  was  labouring  under  severe  bodily  afflic- 
tion ;  that  he  should  endeavour  to  reach  home  as  speedily  as  possible ;  and  adding,  as  it 
were  prophetically,  that  he  should  never  leave  it  again,  till  he  was  conveyed  to  his  yrace. 
So  deeply  interested,  however,  did  Mr.  Higgins  feel  in  the  completion  of  his  work,  that 
he  wrote  frequently — alternately  expressing  hope  and  doubt  of  his  recovery.  Having 
made  what  he  deemed  necessary  arrangements  for  placing  the  manuscript  in  the  hands 
of  his  appointed  editor,  he  continued  to  devote  his  attention  to  it,  till  a  few  days  previous 
to  his  decease.  This  occurred  on  the  9th  of  August,  1833. 

After  Mr,  Higgins's  interment,  his  only  Son  and  Executor  wrote  to  say  he  was  directed" 
to  forward  the  copy,  that  the  printing  might  be  proceeded  with,  and  expressing  his 
desire  to  carry  his  Father's  wishes  fully  into  effect.     Here  it  may  suitably  be  stated, 
that,  at  the  sole  expense  of  Godfrey  Higgins,  his  son,  this  posthumous  volume  of  the 
Author's  is  published. 

The  Friends  and  the  Literary  and  Scientific  Associates  of  the  Author  may  have  felt 
surprised  that  this  publication  has  been  so  long  delayed.  The  delay  has  been  unavoid- 
able: for,  although  Mr.  Higgins  had  made  preparations  for  the  progress  of  the  work,  had 
his  life  been  spared,  yet  when  the  manuscript  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  another,  many 
parts  of  it  appeared  to  require  curtailment,  or  omission,  to  avoid  repetitions.  The  doubts  of 
the  Editor  might  have  been  removed  immediately  had  he  been  able  to  submit  them  to 
the  Author. — As  numerous  quotations  had  been  made,  it  was  necessary  for  tfae  Editor 
frequently  to  go  to  the  British  Museum  to  collate  them  with  the  originals.  His  distance 
from  the  Museum,  the  number  of  books  often  required  for  a  single  sheet,  and  the  time 

VOL.    IT.  6 


VI  PREFACE. 

unavoidably  consumed  in  finding  them,  sometimes  occupied  the  greater  part  of  a  day, 
without  the  object  being  fully  accomplished;  for  it  sometimes  happened,  that  quotations 
had  been  made  from  works  which  could  not  be  found  even  in  that  great  establishment: 
and,  at  certain  periods  of  each  month,  the  Editor's  attention  was  fully  occupied  by  the  inci- 
dental duties  of  his  profession.  During  those  periods,  the  work  was  delayed,  as  no  part 
of  the  manuscript  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  compositor  till  it  had  been  carefully 
examined,  in  order  to  supply  references  to  the  first  volume,  or  to  preceding  sheets  of 
the  second — some  of  which  had  not  been,  and  many  of  which  could  not  be,  supplied 
by  the  Author.  Delays  have  also  occasionally  arisen  from  the  Editor's  inability  to 
attend  to  the  work  in  consequence  of  indisposition.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  publica- 
tion of  the  volume  has  not  been  retarded  by  Mr.  Higgins,  who  has  uniformly  evinced  an 
anxiety  to  see  his  Father's  wishes  realized. 

In  supplying  references  to  the  first  volume,  it  was  sometimes  found,  that  the  Index, 
though  copious,  was  not  so  specific  as  was  desirable,  as  subjects  alluded  to  under  a  given 
name,  could  be  found  only  by  referring  to  many  pages  appended  to  that  name,  To 
obviate  this  inconvenience,  a  more  detailed  Index  is  given  with  this  volume;  and  it  is 
hoped,  that  nearly  every  subject  or  opinion  contained  in  it  may  be  found  by  seeking  it 
under  its  appropriate  head. 

The  reader  may  possibly  feel  somewhat  disappointed,  if  he  peruse  the  entire  volume 
carefully,  that  the  promise  made  (in  p,  145)  by  the  Author,  that  he  would  "exhibit,  in 
a  future  book,  the  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ,  from  his  own  mouth,"  has  not  been  ful- 
filled so  amply  as  he  anticipated.  The  probability  is,  that  had  the  Author  s  life  been 
spared,  he  would  have  left  no  pledge  unredeemed.  He  may,  however,  have  thought, 
that  what  is  contained  in  the  concluding  page  was  sufficient.  At  all  events,  neither  the 
Author's  Son  nor  the  Editor  felt  justified  in  attempting  to  supply  what  may,  perhaps,  be 
regarded  as  an  omission.  They  esteemed  it  their  duty  to  allow  the  Author  alone  to  speak 
for  himself.  His  views  respecting  Jesus  Christ  and  his  religion  are  stated  explicitly  in 
Various  parts  of  the  volume.  These  views  will  doubtless  excite  astonishment  in  some, 
and  displeasure  in  those  who,  while  they  deny  infallibility  to  the  Pope,  write,  and  speak, 
and  act,  as  if  they  possessed  that  attribute.  To  the  honest  and  intelligent  inquirer  after 
truth,  there  can  be  nothing  really  offensive  in  the  statement  of  opinions  directly  opposed 
to  his  own,  if  those  opinions  are  honestly  propounded.  If  the  Author's  statements  re- 
specting many  of  the  rites  and  doctriaes  of  the  endowed  and  unendowed  sects  of  Chris- 
tendom can  be  shewn  to  be  groundless,  numerous  advocates  of  those  rites  and  doctrines 
will,  without  doubt,  speedily  appear  in  their  defence.  Truth  can  lose  nothing  by  fair 
discussion. 

The  Author  having  given,  in  the  Preface  to  the  first  volume,  what  he  designates  a 
Portrait  of  himself,  it  is  deemed  unnecessary  to  enter  into  any  further  particulars.  The 
following  obituary  notice  may,  however,  appropriately  be  added,  as  an  unbiassed  testi- 
mony to  the  Author  s  worth,  and  as  expressive  of  the  opinion  entertained  of  him  by  his 
fellow-countrymen  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  residence. 


PREFACE. 


"  Friday  morning,  August  16,  1833,  the  late  Mr.  Higgins.—  It  has  been  our  painful 
"  duty  to  announce,  in  our  obituary  of  this  week,  the  death  of  a  much  esteemed  and  re- 
"  spected  gentleman,  Godfrey  Higgins,  Esq.,  of  Skellow  Grange.    As  journalists,  wt* 
"  feel  that  Mr.  Higgins  has  long  occupied  too  large  a  space  in  the  public  eye  to  be  per-' 
"  mitted  to  slide  silently  into  the  grave;  while  we  are,  at  the  same  time,  conscious  of 
ec  our  inability  to  do  justice  to  the  claims  of  the  neighbour  we  have  lost.    Mr.  Higgins 
"  was,  in  early  life,  an  assiduous  and  able  magistrate;  quick  to  discover  the  right,  and 
"  firm  and  fearless  to  promote  and  to  maintain  it;  and  his  indefatigable  exertions  in  the 
"  detection  and  correction  of  the  great  abuses  then  existing  in  the  management  of  the 
ff  York  Lunatic  Asylum,  and  the  formation  of  another  and  very  extensive  establishment 
"  for  the  care  and  protection  of  pauper  lunatics  at  Wakefield,  will  be  monuments  of  his 
i(  public  spirit,  and  perseverance,  and  philanthropy,  which  many,  once  visited  by  the 
ff  privation  of  human  reason,  (that  severest  of  human  afflictions,)  will  have  reason  to  be 
"  grateful  for  long  after  the  present  generation  shall  have  passed  away.    Retiring  from 
"  a  regular  attention  to  magisterial  duty,  Mr.  Higgins,  for  some  years  preceding  his 
"  death,  had  devoted  a  considerable  portion  of  his  leisure  to  antiquarian  research— 
"  travelling  much  in  the  pursuit  and  cultivation  of  his  favourite  study;  and  publishing 
"  from  time  to  time,  his  discoveries  and  constructions  in  works  interesting  to  the  man 
"  of  science,  and  of  value  to  the  public  ;  while,  as  a  moral  and  political  writer,  his  pro- 
"  ductions  were  numerous  and  important  ;   possessing  much  of  originality  and  inde- 
"  pendent  feeling,  and  always  having  the  increasing  happiness  and  improved  condition 
"  of  his  fellow-creatures  for  their  object.     Being  accustomed  to  think  for  himself  — 
"  (taking  what  he  considered  reason  and  good  sense,  more  than  the  rules  of  ire  schools, 
"  for  his  guide)  —  and  to  write  and  to  speak  what  he  thought,  his  sentiments  and  opi- 
"  nions  have  by  many  been  admired  and  adopted;  whilst  by  others  —  perhaps  less  candid 
ttf  and  liberal  than  he  was  —  they  have  been  impugned  and  assailed  with  acrimony.    Yet 
"  were  their  motives  never  called  in  question.    They  were  admitted  by  all  to  have  their 
"  fountain  in  a  manly,  honest  heart  ;  nor  could  they  fail  to  be  acceptable  in  the  sight  of 
"  that  Being  whose  eye  expands  itself  over  all  the  thoughts  and  transactions  of  man- 
"kind;  and  appreciates,  and  registers,  and  will  reward  them,  not  according  to  conse- 
"  quence,  but  intention.    Be  the  sentiments  and  opinions  we  allude  to  founded  in  truth 
"  or  in  error,  they  at  least  united  in  the  instance  before  us,  to  form  the  honourable,  the 
"  punctual,  the  hospitable,  the  cheerful,  and  kind-hearted  gentleman  ;  and  it  will  be 
"  long,  very  long,  ere  it  can  be  the  province  of  the  Doncaster  Gazette  to  report  the 
"  decease  of  a  neighbour  more  deservedly  and  deeply  respected  and  regretted.'* 


(    viii    ) 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THE  Author  lived  to  revise  only  the  first  four  sheets  of  this  volume.  Apprehending 
that  his  life  was  drawing  to  a  close,  he  wrote  to  his  printer,  expressing  a  wish  that  he 
would  edit  the  remainder  of  the  work.  From  so  responsible  an  office  the  printer  would 
have  shrunk,  had  not  the  Author  informed  him  that  the  manuscript  was  so  far  arranged, 
that,  with  proper  attention,  he  would  be  able  to  complete  the  volume.  Whether  Mr. 
Higgins's  confidence  was  well-founded,  must  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader. 

Two  injunctions  were  laid  on  the  appointed  Editor, — that  he  should  not  send  out  the 
proof  sheets  to  any  literary  friend;  and  that,  in  any  instance  of  a  difference  of  opinion, 
he  should  append  Editor  to  the  note.  The  first  injunction  is  respectfully  urged  on  the 
kind  and  candid  consideration  of  the  reader,  in  excuse  for  the  errata,  which,  it  is 
lamented,  are  numerous.  On  the  second  injunction,  the  Editor  begs  to  remark,  that  he 
has  scrupulously  endeavoured  to  leave  every  opinion  of  the  Author's  as  he  found  it;  and 
ihat,  sustaining  the  twofold  office  of  Printer  and  Editor,  he  has  reluctantly  expressed 
any  dissent  from  the  views  of  the  Author.  One  note,  especially,  the  Editor  wishes  he 
had  not  inserted — that  in  p,  122,  as  it  was  written  in  ignorance  of  the  Author's  opinion, 
subsequently  expressed  (pp.  131,  132),  respecting  the  book  of  The  Acts.  It  will  be 
obvious  from  other  notes,  that  the  Editor  views  the  character  and  doctrines  of  Paul  in  a 
different  light  from  that  in  which  the  Author  regarded  them.  It  will,  therefore,  it  is 
hoped,  not  offend  or  shock  the  philosophical  reader,  when  he  finds  it  added,  that  the 
Editor  avows  his  firm  conviction  of  the  divine  mission,  the  death  (by  crucifixion),  the 
resurrection,  and  the  ascension  to  a  state  of  immortality,  of  JESUS  of  Nazareth. 

The  respected  Author,  could  he  speak  from  the  grave,  would  not,  the  Editor  is  con- 
fident disapprove  of  this  frank  and  conscientious  avowal.  Mr.  Higgins  was,  indeed,  as 
he  claimed  to  be  considered,  a  philalethean ;  and  he  was  too  liberal  and  too  generous  to 
deny  to  his  Editor  the  right  of  expressing  his  love  of  that  which  he  regards  as  the  truth. 
By  the  great  majority  of  Christians  the  Author's  opinions  will  doubtless  be  con- 
sidered as  very  remote  from  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  /'  but  when  HE  shall  return 
to  judge  the  word  in  righteousness  (an  event  which  the  Editor  gratefully  anticipates),  HE 
will  determine  who  most  inadequately  appreciated  his  nature  and  office — those  who  be- 
lieved him  a  good  man,  but  not  a  divinely  commissioned  prophet ;  or  those  who  endea- 
voured to  invest  him  with  the  attributes,  and  to  place  him  on  the  throne,  of  his  eternal 
and  ever-merciful  FATHER. 

THE  EDITOR. 

Homerton,  June  4,  1830. 


CONTENTS, 


ANACALYPSIS. 

BOOK  I.     CHAPTER  I. 

Page 
. — Saxons        ------------        ......        *_„! 

CHAPTER  II. 

Georgia. — Scala      -------------.-,..5 

CHAPTER  III 

Jud&an  Mythos  in  Egypt.— Menes.  Noah. — Cheres  —Abraham  Tulis.— Joseph,-* Grecian  History  a  Travesty*— - 
Language  of  Egypt,— Deisul  Voyage  of  Salvation  -.-,.-10 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Loid  Kingsborough  on  Mexico.— Malcolme.— Mexican  Mythos  the  same  as  that  of  the  Old  World.— Humboldt 
and  Spin  etc.— Chronology  and  Cyclic  Periods.—  To  tvers  of  Mexico  and  Babel.— -Jewish  Language  and  Mexican 
Riteb. — Cross  and  Crucifixes. — Immaculate  Conception.  Female  Principle.— Humboldt. — Bochica,  Peruvian 
Rites,  &c.-«The  Ass  and  Horse.  Races  of  Men.— China.  Tibet.  Spanish  Policy.— Lawb  of  the  Mexicans.— 
Easter  Island.— Last  Avatar  expected*— Tod  on  Tibet.  Island  sunk.  Jewish  My thoh.— General  Observations  21 

BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  I. 

Christian  Religion  not  New. — The  Carmelites  Pythagoreans. — Pontifex  Maximus.— Seven  Sacraments.  Eucharist 
— Baptism.—Christening. — Confirmation.— Baptism  of  Bells.— Ordination.— Marriage.  —Extreme  Unction  — 
Purgatory. — Auricular  Confession *.--...,-  42 

CHAPTER  II. 

Revenues. — Monks  and  Nuns. — Mitre. — Zone, — Cassock — Praying  Standing. — White  Surplice  Tithes  paid* 
Tonsure  practised  Crosier,  &c.— Candles,  Incense. — Processions.  Images.  St.  Abraham.— -Festivals*  — 
Epiphany.  St.  Denis,  &c  — Bambino  at  Rome.  Dedicating  Churches,  &c.,  &c  — Bulk.  Agnus  Dei.  Angels. 
Daemons  — Sunday,  Dies  Solis.  Various  Customs „-,  .-76 

CHAPTER  III. 

Bethlehem,  Birth  of  Jesus  Christ.— Birth,  Death,  and  Resurrection  of  all  the  Godb.~~ Passover.— Lamb  of  God,— 
Gentile  Crucifixion. — Jesus  Christ  was  not  Crucified.— -Jewish  Incarnation.— Pythagoras.-^-ObservatioQs  95 

BOOK  III.    CHAPTER  I, 

LETTERS. 

Origin  of  Letters.— Moon's  Period.— .Names  of  Letters. — Boucher.— Dr.  Wait  qn  Sa&s^t**.— Cycld  of  .Fourteen.— 
Thoth.— Oro.  Homer*— Targums.— Dr,  Young.  Sol.— Joseph,  Protetwi.  :  Sl^^SJ^flton/  'Sindi,  peter,— 
Cryptography  Indian.— Vowel  Points.— Acrostic.  Anagram.— Metathesis;  'l^l^i(^ie^  Kin^— Arabic  letters. 
—The  God  Xangti,— •' E*?,  f*«>  ex.— Signets.— Sigma  Tau.— Adam.  Genesis  f  "-* ;^  «  -  «  „  .147 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Page 

Dis  Mariebus.— Systems  of  Letters.— Last  Avatars.  Mohained,  &c.— Names  of  the  Gods  of  the  Week.— Chinese 
Writing.— Abacus  and  Nabathean  Alphabet.— Java.— Northmore's  System.— Von  Hammer's  Book.  Saxons.— 
Bacchus.  Janus.  Ogham.— Rhyme.  Bards.  Fates.  Veds.— Chinese.— Immaculate  Conception  of  Saca.— 
Pallium.— Apocrypha.— Deisul.— Hammer's  Arabic  Book 203 

CHAPTER  III. 

Roma.  Flora,  Pushto.— Allegory  of  the  Flower  continued.— General  Observations. — Allegories. — Allegories 
continued.— Retrospect 23S 

BOOK  IV. 

FEODAL  OR  FEUDAL  TENURE. 

Universal  Pontifical  Government.— Religion  of  Tibet.— Chartres*  Stone. — The  Linga. — Island  of  lona.— Feodal 
or  Feudal  Tenure. — Gavel-kind.—  Frank-al-Moign  —Lands  in  Demesne.  —  Burgage  Tenure. —Tenure  by 
Knights'  Service.— Origin  of  Monks  and  Nuns.— Land  Tax  of  India. — The  Scythians,— The  Arabians,— My- 
thic Divisions  of  Countries,  with  their  Officers.— Trade,  Craft,  Ras  or  Caste.— Cathedrals,  &e.,  were  Druidical, 
then  Roman,  Temples.— Ings  Lands.— Allodial  Lands.— Hibtory  of  the  Island  of  li,  or  lona,  or  Icolmkill.— 
Ceylon.— CaL— Vitrified  Forts  of  Scotland.— Mystery,  Wittenagemote.— The  Scandinavians.— German  Rossi- 
crucians,— Di-Om,  D'Om,  Domus,  Om. — Ceres,  Bethlehem.— Chivalry. — Sea  Kings,  Runes  — Golden  Age  -  258 

BOOK  V.    CHAPTER  I. 

Object  of  the  Mythos.— Book  of  Enoch  on  the  Earth's  Axis.— Noah  and  Ships  of  the  Ancients.— Cause  and 
Extent  of  the  Flood. — Change  of  the  Earth's  Axis.— Flood  of  Ogyges.— Inachus.— Comets  held  to  be  Planets. 
— Seven-Day  Cycle  and  Length  of  Year.— Whiston  on  Year  of  360  Days^Whistou  on  Length  of  Antediluvian 
Year.— Whiston  on  Comet  of  1680.— Comet  of  5?5J  Years'  Period  the  Cause  of  the  Flood.— Periods  of  Comets. 
—Encke's  Comet.— Drs.  Gregory  and  Halley  on  Whiston's  Theory.— Dr.  Keill  on  Whiston's  Theory.— -Comet 
of  5?5§  Years  continued. — M.  Arago  on  Comets.— Lexel's  Comet.— Genesis,  in  Substance,  found  in  many 
Countries.— Agency  of  Comets.— Digression  on  Gas,  Spirit,  Inspiration,  the  Soul.— Comet  and  Flood  re- 
sumed.—The  World's  History  renewed,— Early  History  a  Mytlios.— Barasit  and  Mercavah  -  ...  309 

CHAPTER  II. 

Caesar*— Alexander.— Gengis  Khan.— Akbar.— Napoleon.— Supreme  Pontiff.— Races  of  Man.  Black  Gods.— 
Trinitarian  Doctrine  of  Genesis,  Jewish  Polity.  Priesthood.— Supreme  Priesthood 343 

CHAPTER  III. 

Niebuhr  on  Pontifical  Government  in  Italy.— Patriarchal  Government  in  China.— Mohamed.— Pontifical  Govern, 
ment.— The  Assassins. — Niebuhr  on  Landed  Tenures  renewed.— Confederated  States  under  Pontifical  Govern- 
ment.  Letters  and  Population * 371 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Microcosm.— Atoms.— Chinese  Microcosm,— The  World,  &c.,  divided  into  Three.— Sacred  Numbers*— Mercavah 
and  Caaba.— Measures  of  the  Ancients. — Etruscan  Agrimensores.  Templum,  Mount;  Gargi*rus>  Cor.  Cardo. 
Agrimensores.  Termini — The  Britons. — The  Saxons — Tithes  resumed, — The  Athenians, — Division  into 
Castes,  into  Three,  &c. — Archierarch,  Sanhedrim,  Amphictyons. — Religious  Dances.  Poetry.  Music  -  •  397 

CHAPTER  V. 

Microcosm  continued.  Vedanta  and  Nyaya  Philosophy  or  Doctrines.— Nature  of  the  Microcosm.— Pythagoras 
on  Numbers.  Cycles. — Mythology.  Patron  and  Client.  Colonies.  Isopolity.  Numa  Pompilius. — Symbolic 
and  Alphabetic  Writing. — Adoration,  of  Animals.  The  Onion.  Crest. — The  Ancile  of  Numa,  Cyclic  Mythos. 
Clemens  Alexanclrinus.  Ancient  Mysteries.  Baptism,  the  Eucharist,  &c.  Doctrine  of  the  Ancient'and  Modern 
X^r*— Bailly,  Buffon,  &c.,  on  Birth-place  of  Mankind.  Former  Heat  at  the  Poles.  The  Mythic-Cyclic-Mi- 
crosmic  System.  What  ha$  happeaed  may  happen  again.  Illusion 427 

CONCLUSION 446 


EEEATA  ET   CO  BE,  I  GEN  DA. 


Page  3,  line  1,  for  *Scythiae/  read  Scythes. 
line  3,  for  *  que/  read  quee. 
line  24,  for  *  la  xn6me/  read  U  mime. 
line  25,  for  *  ils  en  suivia/  read  il  s'en  suivra. 
line  26,  between  *  n'ont  eu'  and  *  la  philosophic/  insert  pour. 
line  29,  foi  *  sufferait/  read  suffirait* 
65,  line  24,  for  'sacies/  read  sacre'es. 
75,  line  29,  for  *accurrit/  read  occurrit. 
102,  line  22,  foi  *  Zelmissus/  read  Telmtssus. 

107,  line  22,  for  *deficire/  lead  deficere. 

108,  line  25,  for  *  jeligione,*  read  religion*. 

109,  line  4  from  the  bottom,  for  *  grounds,*  lead  crowns. 

122,  omit  Editor's  note,  and  see  bottom  of  p.  131  and  top  of  p.  132,  foi  the  Authors  opinion 

of  the  The  <AcUy  and  leferencc  to  Kvansou's  Dissonance. 
127,  line  5,  for  *  constantialia/  read  sttbstantialfa. 

135,  line  8,  dele  'the/  before  holy  Call/ 

136,  line  8,  foi  c  /cwcXows?/  lead  /et>/eX&>7Tfi$. 

138,  lines  8,  9,  for  <  5  x  10=60,  and  60  x  10«360/  read  5  x  12=60,  and  60  x  5  =300. 
144,  line  13,  foi  *  secomd/  read  second. 
164,  line  14,  insert  ce  between  *  C'est  que  ' 

169,  line  33,  for  e  Fostia/  read  Fortia. 

170,  lines  10,  11,  for  *  AvjctqyS?  and  TAP^AS/  lead  Awc«jvSE  and  TPA^AS 
172,  line  29,  for  *  Pope/  lead  Pape. 

line  32,  for  *  veillieV  and  *  i  assemble/  read  verities  and  rassembfa. 
196,  line  3  of  note,  for  *  Fostia,'  read  Fortia. 
220,  line  11,  for  *  had  been/  read  Jias  been. 
259,  line  32,  for  *  des  ses/  read  <te  $es. 

line  7  from  bottom,  for  *  impiemerent/  read  imp? ime rent. 
273,  line  8,  for  *  Sotland/  read  Scotland, 
277,  line  18,  for  *5n  preces/  read  m  pieces. 
287,  lioe  31,  for  *  which  rese/  read  which  rose. 
301 ,  line  18,  for  *  convert,'  read  convent* 
309,  line  7  of  contents,  for  *  Lexall's/  read  layers. 

3?4,'  linTl?  and  3>}for  *  F^ods  of  Ogyges  and  Inachus,  read  Flood  of  Ogyges. 

311,  line  5  from  the  bottom,  for  'SGJNS/  read  SIGNS. 

333,  line  37,  for  *  2920/  read  2926. 

336,  line  23,  for  *  coporeal/  read  corporeal* 

345,  lines  5  and  4  from  the  bottom,  for  *  Bammensium'  and  *  Ram  men  ses/  read  Ramnensium 

and  Ramnenses. 

350,  line  24,  for  *cie*es/  read  cr^es. 
352,  first  note,  for « Assiat/  read  Asiat. 
366,  last  line,  for  t  henious/  read  heinous. 

371,  in  note  4,  for  *  2  Kings  xxiii.,  &c.,  &c./  read  2  Kings  *«W.  6,  $-c. 

372,  line  6  of  note  2,  for  *  de  Saques/  read  des  Saques. 

385,  line  7,  foi  *  de  saintes*  read  des  saint es. 

386,  line  4  fiom  the  bottom,  for  '  Egypt^/  read  Egypt*. 
391,  line  3,  for  *  passe",  read  pas&te. 

400,  line  21,  for  *  thiee  son,*  read  three  sons. 
406;  line  4,  for  *  famish/  \zad  furnishes. 
411,  line  38,  for  *  Godyean/  read  Gordyean. 
426,  line  26,  for  'cords,*  read  cordes. 
437,  last  line  of  text,  for  *  «fo*  read  el/*. 


ANACALYPSIS. 


BOOK  L 
CHAPTER  L 

SACA.— SAXONS. 

I  SHALL  in  this  Chapter  submit  to  my  reader  some  observations  relating  to  the  ancient  Sacae  of 
Tartary  or  North  India,  These  observations  will  be  of  importance  in  the  discussion  of  the  Origin 
of  Letters,  which  will  be  contained  in  a  future  Book;  and  also  of  the  first  importance  in  the  two 
following  Books,  the  object  of  which  will  be  to  shew,  that  a  real,  not  a  poetical,  age  of  gold— an 
age  of  learning,  peace,  and  civilization— once  existed;  and  that  this  was  under  the  rule  of  a  sacer- 
dotal caste  or  order  which  governed  the  whole  world,  and  which  originated  the  feudal  system.  I 
shall  also  shew,  that  $11  the  sacred  numbers  and  cycles  were  intimately  connected  with,  and  indeed 
partly  arose  out  of,  a  microcosmic  theory,  named  by  Plato  in  his  Timaeus,  which  was  a  part  of  the 
secret  doctrine  of  Genesis  j  and  the  whole  of  this  I  shall  also  shew  was  intimately  connected  with 
the  feudal  system.  I  fear  the  extracts  from  Georgius  will  be  found  by  many  of  my  readers  tedi- 
ous ;  but  as  proofs  of  my  -system,  from  an  unwilling  witness,  they  are  of  the  first  importance,  and 
cannot  be  dispensed  with. 

We  have  seen,  (Vol.  L  p.  153,)  that  one  of  the  most  common  names  of  Buddha  was  Sacya  (the 
name  of  the  Lama  of  Tibet)  and  Saca,  and  Saca-sa,  From  this  name  of  Buddha  it  was  'that  the 
tribes  who  inhabited  an  extensive  country  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea  and  north  of  Tibet,  were  called 
Sacae,  (Vide  Ptolemy.)  This  was  the  hive  whose  castes  are  yet  found  in  the  West,  called  Saxons, 
having,  as  Dr.  Geddes  says,  the  Hebrew  language.1  They  were  the  Belgic  Suessones  of  Gaul; 


1  From  Dr.  Wait  I  learn  that  there  are  an  IMMENSE  number  of  Chaldee  roots  to  be  found  in  the  Sanscrit  lists  of 
Dhatoos.  (See  Class,  Journal,  Vol.  XVL  p  213J  These  Chaldee  roots  are  Hebrew  roots  also,  and  are,  I  have  no 
doubt,  in  a  very  considerable  degree,  the  origin  or  base  whereon  the  Sanscrit  was  built  We  shall  see  in  a  future  Book 
that  they  were  of  the  old  Tamul  language,  or  at  lea$t  the  vernacular  tongue  of  great  numbers  of  people  occupying  the 
country  of  the  Tamuls  at  this  day,  and  are  called  by  them  Pushto,  the  same  as  the  language  of  Western  Syria :  indeed, 
a  close  attention  to  what  has  been  said  in  Vol.  L  Book  X,  respecting  St  Thomas  and  the  Tamuls,  must  have  shewn  a 
high  probability  of  this  already,  But  I  shall  return  to  this  in  my  book  on  the  Origin  of  Letters* 

The  Sanscrit  Dhatoos  are  data— things  given  or  granted  or  assumed,  on  which  other  things  are  built— the  roots  of 
the  language.  The  word  is  what  I  call  Sanscrit  Latin. 


*  S4CA. 

one  of  their  capitals  was  Soissons  :l  they  were  called  Sausen  by  the  Welsh3  Sacon  by  the  Scotch, 
and  Sasenach  or  Saxsenach  by  the  Irish.  They  are  the  people  said  by  Herodotus  to  be  the  same 
as  the  Scythians. 2 

Dr.  Scheller  maintains  the  whole  of  Europe  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  Saxons  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Celts.3  But  they  were,  in  fact,  both  tribes  of  the  same  people.  Scythians,  Celts, 
Saxons,  were  successive  castes  or  swarms  from  the  same  hive.  If  there  were  any  difference,  it 
was  merely  in  the  time  of  their  arrival  in  the  West.  But  it  is  probable  that  they  were  only  differ- 
ent names  for  the  same  people;  as  the  Britons  are  called  English,  Scotch,  Welsh,  Albanians, 
Caledonians,  Cambrians,  &c.  The  difference  in  their  dialects  is  only  what  would  naturally  arise  in 
unwritten  languages,  in  the  space  of  four  or  five  hundred  years. 

They  were  castes  or  swarms  sent  out  in  succession,  from  a  great  and  excessively  populous  hive 
in  Tartary  or  North  India — the  country  of  the  thousand  cities  of  Strabo.  They  were  exactly  like 
the  tribes  sent  out  from  Britain  in  modern  times — at  one  time  to  America,  at  another  time  to 
Africa,  at  another  time  to  Australia.  They  were  the  subjects  of  the  only  civilized  nation  on  the 
earth.  fi  hey  took  with  them  every  where  their  manners,  government,  language,  religion,  and 
allegiance  to  their  supreme  head,  as  our  colonies  all  retain  their  allegiance  to  the  mother  country. 
They  at  first  nowhere  found  any  of  their  own  high  caste,  none  in  fact  but  such  persons  as  we 
found  in  America — Aborigines,  as  we  call  them.  They  met  with  no  resistance ;  but,  by  degrees, 
as  the  world  became  peopled  with  the  successors  of  previous  tribes  of  their  own  countrymen,  and 
land  scarce,  wars  for  possession  began  to  arise*  This  I  shall  discuss,  however,  in  my  next  Book. 

The  word  Saca  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  word  rottf  she,  imaginari,  and  scio,  to  contemplate,  4 
and  the  Greek  yjvcotrxo) — in  short,  mind,  constantly  confounded  with  wisdom.  The  Sciakam  of 
Georgius  is  probably  Sa~ca-akim.  The  root  is  attf  &h,  whence  came  bw  skl9  wisdom,5  and  our 
skill.  Saca  is  sax ;  and  sakl  or  ski,  or  skill  or  cunning  or  knowledge  or  scientia  or  wisdom,  in  any 
art,  is  X  or  Xaca,  KL,  which  means  the  cal  or  wisdom  of  X;  and  KL.is  X— 600,  Liz50,zi650: 
and  the  KL-di  is  the  origin,  in  its  most  remote  degree,  of  the  Calidei  or  Chaldeans.  I  promised 
this  explanation  in  Book  XL  Chap*  L  Sect.  1 ;  Callide  (wisely),  cunning,  king,  incarnation  of 
wisdom  or  cunning.  The  origin  of  the  root  sk  and  kl,  I  shall  shew  when  I  treat  of  the  Origin  of 
Letters.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  root  is,  in  fact,  the  same  as  the  $&  sg,  whence  come  nstP  $gh 
and  the  Latin  sagio,6  and  saga  a  witch,  and  sagacitas,  prsesagio — English,  sage,  sagacious, presage ;  7 
and  the  Roman  officer  called  sagart,  who  was  the  sacrificer,  and  the  Hebrew  sagan,  the  assistant 
or  adviser  of  the  high  priest.  From  this  came  the  word  g^ttf  sit,  Scalit,  the  name  given  to  Joseph 
in  Egypt,  and  the  meaning  of  which,  I  apprehend,  was  wise  man.  8  Joseph  was  called  a  saviour ; 
and  this  word  is  the  same  as  salus,  salutis,  (Vide  Book  X.  Chap.  V.  Sect.  6.)  The  barbarian  who 
marched  from  the  North  and  plundered  Jerusalem,  was  a  Scythian,  or  Tat-ar  or  Tartar  5  he  was 
called  Shesach.9  This  is  nothing  but  Saxon  or  Sasenach.  Tat  is  a  name  of  Buddha, 

Mohamed  was  called  a  Saca  or  Saceswara,  as  well  as  a  Vicramaditya.  These  are  all  merely 
descriptive  epithets.  And  from  the  fact  named  above  we  find  the  reason  why  the  Mohamedans 
spared  the  statues  of  Buddha  in  India.  It  strongly  confirms  the  doctrine  of  the  secret  religion 
of  the  Mohamedans.  Mohamed  was  thought  to  be  a  renewed  incarnation  of  divine  wisdom,  and 
of  course  of  Buddha,  in  his  tenth  avatar. 

1  Probably  town  of  the  Saxonnst  softened  to  Soissons.  *  Guerin  de  Rocher,  Vol.  I.  p.  152. 

a  Foreign  Quart.  Rev.,  July  1831,  p.  224 ;  and  Vallancey,  Coll  Hib.  Vol.  V.  pp.  12,  23,  34,  49,  181,  182. 

*  Parkh'urst,  p.  733 ;  vide  Littleton's  Diet,  5  Parkhurst,  p,  734. 

s  See  Cicero,  de  Divinat.  Lib  i.  Cap.  xxxi.  7  Vide  Parkhurst  in  voce. 

8  Vide  Gueria  de  Rocher,  Vol.  I.  p,  1 19,  »  Shishak,  2  Chron.  xu.  7—9. 


BOOK    I.   CHAPTER   I.  3 

Abrah.  Ortelius  en  ses  Synonymes  et  Thr&ors  G6ographiques  Scythise,  a  Persis  Sagae,  ut  Mela 
habet,  vel  Acae  ut  Plinius,  Solinus,  et  Eustathius  scribunt  Scythia  Saga  est  in  originibus  Catonis, 
que  circumferuntur.1 

In  the  time  of  the  Pharaohs  the  Egyptians  had  a  class  of  persons  called  Sages  or  wise  men.* 

Considering  that  Saca  means  Buddha  the  God  of  Wisdom,  I  cannot  much  doubt  that  the  Irish 
Sagan,  a  priest,  the  Scandanavian  Saga,  the  Hebrew  po  sgn,  noble  or  great  man,  are  all  the  same. 

"  The  heathen  Irish  had  their  Sagan,  like  the  Tyrians  and  Chaldaeans, Berosus  gives  the 

"  epithet  of  Sagan  Ogygisan  to  Noah,  The  Sagau  Cohenia  was  the  Aristites  Sacerdotum,  i.  e. 
"  primarius  Sacerdotum  post  summum. 3  Sagan  Babyloniorum  sive  Chaldsaorum  vox,  a  quibus 
t€  ad  Hebrseos  transivit."  4  The  Cohenia  is  the  Hebrew  word  for  a  priest— a  Cohen ;  and  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  Chaons,  who  are  said  by  the  Indians  and  Persians  to  have  erected  the  Druidical 
circles,  had  their  names  from  this  word.  I  think  it  probable,  also,  that  the  Cohen  had  a  near 
relation  to  the  Kan* 

Vallancey  says,  from  some  author  whose  name  he  does  not  give,  but  I  suspect  from  Georgius, 
"  In  Indiis  Xacse  religio  per  omnes  fere  earum  regionnm  populos  latissimfc  funditur :  tempus  quo 
ff  Xaca  vixerit,  incertum  est,  plures  sunt  ex  Europseis  scriptoribus,  qui  floruisse  velint  Salomone 
<e  in  Judaea  regnante  :  non  idem  est  et  Xaca  novus,  i.  e.  Apollonius  Tyaneus,  qui  floriut  A.  D.  60. 
"  (T,  161.)  Xaeam  eundem  esse  ac  Buddum,  La  Crosius  aliique  non  dubitant  Xacae  nominis 
"  origo  a  Saca  Babiloniorum  et  Persaruin  nutnine  repetendo,  Tibetanorum  litera  scribitur 
u  Sachia,  quod  idem  est  cum  Sechia  Sinensium  (T.  21).  Les  Japonois  se  disent  originaire  du  pais, 
**  on  il  est  adore  sous  lenom  de  Budhu,  et  de  Sommona-cadam."5  Baiiiy,  p.  200,  says,  fc  Le 
fe  Xaca  des  Japonais,  le  Sommona-chutana,  du  Pegu,  le  Sommona-kodam  de  Siam,  le  Butta  des 
c<  Indiens,  ne  sont  qu*  un  seul  et  m£me  personage,  regard^  ici  comme  un  Dieu,  la  comme  un 
**  legislateur— si  j'  ai  bien  prouv6  que  Butta,  Thoth  et  Mercure  ne  sont  egalement  que  la  m6me 
ctf  inventeur  des  sciences  et  des  arts :  ils  en  suivra  que  toutes  les  nations  de  1*  Asie,  anciennes  et 
"  modernes,  n9  ont  eu  la  philosophie  et  pour  la  religion,  qu?  un  seul  et  m£me  legislateur  plac£  a  leur 
"  origine.  Alors  je  dirai  que  ce  legislateur  unique  n'a  pu  aller  partout  dans  T  Asie,  ni  en  m£me 
**  terns  parceque,  sans  doute,  il  n'avait  pas  d'ailes:  ni  succe$sivement  parceque  la  vie  d'un 
"  homme  ne  suflferait  pas  aux  voyages.  L'  existence  de  ce  peuple  ant6rieur  est  prouv^e  par  le 
"  tableau  qui  n'offre  que  des  debris,  astronomie  oblige,  philosophie  m^ide  a  des  absurdit6s, 
"  physique  d^g€n€r^e  en  fables,  religion  epur€e,  mais  cachde  sous  un  idolatrie  grossi^re/*  From 
what  my  reader  has  seen  in  the  tenth  Book,  I  think  he  can  have  little  or  no  doubt  that  the  debris 
here  alluded  to,  refers  to  the  refined  and  beautiful  system  of  Wisdom  there  developed. 

There  is  scarcely  a  corner  of  the  globe  where  the  doctrines  of  Wisdom  may  not,  as  a  mythos, 
be  found.  My  learned  friend  Eusfcbe  de  Sajverte6  has  clearly  proved  that,  by  the  Sagas  of  the 
Scandinavians,  the  books  of  Wisdom  are  meant— the  word  Saga  being  the  same  as  the  French 
sagesse  and  the  Latin  sagax. 

From  the  same  author,  p.  395,  it  appears  that  the  Kazan ae  or  Razanui  can  be  nothing  but 
children  of  Ras  or  Wisdom.7  Thus  it  is  evident,  that  to  speak  of  the  Sacae  or  Saxons  was  the 
same  as  to  speak  of  the  Buddhists*  It  was  the  general  name,  as  we  call  many  sects  of  Catholics 


*  Claude  Duret,  Hist,  des  Lang.  p.  513.  *  Abb6  de  Rocher,  Vol.  V.  p.  173.  3  Jer.  xx.  1. 

*  Buxtorf ;  Vail.  Coll.  Hib.  5  Vail.  ColL  Hib.  Vol.  IV.  Part  I.  p.  162. 

6  Essai  sur  les  Noms,  Vol.  II.  pp.  3?3,  3?5,  381,  385. 

7  I»  the  list  of  names  given  in  p.  408,  most  of  them  are  in  reality  Hebrew ;  for  instance*  Aretia  for  earth  is  Aretz, 
Arsa,  the  Sun,  unn  hw,  &c. 

B2 


4  SAXONS, 

or  Protestants  Christians.  From  this  their  sacred  books  were  called  Sacas  or  Sagas,  as  we  call 
the  books  of  the  Indians  Vedas  or  Bedas,  or,  in  fact,  Buddhas  or  books  of  wisdom.  This  all 
agrees  very  well  with  the  learned  language  of  Cashi-Mere  or  Cashmere  having  been  Chaldee ;  and 
it  accounts  for  Dr.  Geddes'  having  found  their  language  to  be  Hebrew.  The  Norwegian  kings 
were  called  Haquin.  This  is  but  Hakim  or  £D3n  hkm;  and  the  substitute  for  the  Jewish  high 
priest  was  a  Sagan.  Closely  allied  to  these  is  the  Hebrew  root  *|tto  k$p  an  enchanter,1  *)BO 
ksp  is  literally  two  words,  and  means  *yo  sp,  wise,  and  3  k  as,  that  is,  as  a  wise  person.  Refer 
to  Vol.  I.  pp.  733, 734,  to  my  explanation  of  Lokman. 

Anciently  all  priests  were  physicians,  and  were  called  Hakim :  (as  physicians  are  yet  called  in 
the  East :)  but  this  word  always  conveyed  with  it  a  sacredness  of  character.  This  is  all  in  keeping 
with  their  Gods— Odin,  Woden,  Thor;  with  the  Bud  was  Trigeranos  in  Wales,  and  the  Old  Man 
Budda  in  Scotland;  all  these  came  with  the  first  or  the  second  tribe  of  Saxons  to  the  north  of 
Germany  and  to  Britain. 

Strabo  says, 2  <e  ALL  the  tribes  eastward  of  the  Caspian  Sea  are  called  Scythic :  the  Daae  next 
"the  sea,  and  the  Sacae  more  eastward ;  but  every  tribe  has  a  particular  name;  all  are  nomadic." 
It  is  inattention  to  this  which  causes  all  our  confusion.  We  have  here  the  Clans  of  Scotland,  and 
the  Tribes  of  Bedoween  Arabs.  The  Sacae,  pronounced  in  Sanscrit  like  our  Sak-hse,3  have  made 
in  Asia  irruptions  similar  to  those  of  the  Cimmerians :  thus  they  possessed  themselves  of  Bactria, 
and  the  district  of  Armenia,  called  after  them  Sacasena.  Tjbis  word,  I  believe,  is  only  Sacas-ana, 
country  of  Sacas.  I  have  no  doubt  that  when  npmade  tribes  were  driven  out  of  the  lands  which 
they  loosely  settled,  they  pissed,  like  the  Israelites  from  Egypt,  through  countries  occupied  by 
other  tribes,  in  search  of  new  habitations,  till  they  could  go  no  farther  j  then  a  desperate  struggle 
took  place  for  the  possession  of  the  extreme  country:  thus  Saxons  arrived  in  Germany. and 
Britain,  from  countries  the  most  remote. 

It  appears  from  a  note  of  Dr.  Geddes's  on  the  word  create  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis,  to  be 
seen  in  bis  Critical  Remarks  on  that  passage,  that  my  view  of  this  subject  is  supported  by  the 
book  of  Wisdom,  Justin  Martyr,  and  Origen,  "He  also  shews  that  a  passage  in  the  book  of 
Maccabees,  which  has  been  supposed  to  oppose  my  doctrine,  has  been  wrongly  translated.  He 
also  shews  that  in  the  Scoto-Saxon  dialect  the  word  *ro  bra  still  retains  its  original  signification ; 
and,  in  a  note,  he  says,  he  hopes  he  shall  one  day  be  able  to  prove  that  almost  all  our  genuine 
Saxon  words  are  either  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  Arabic,  or  Persic.  I  am  very  sorry  the  Doctor  did  not 
live  to  carry  his  intention  into  effect,  which  I  am  sure  he  could  have  done.  I  shall  return  to  the 
Saxons  again  in  a  future  Book,  and  give  their  history,  which  will  be  found  to  be  of  the  very  first 
importance, 

1  See  Frey's  Hebrew  Lex,  2  Lib,  xi.  »  Tod's  Hist.  Raj,  59, 


BOOK  I.    CHAPTER  II.   SECTION  1. 


CHAPTER  II. 

GEORGIUS. — SCALA. 

I.  IN  the  extracts  which  I  shall  now  give  from  Georgius  will  be  found  much  useful  information, 
which  I  think  will  not  be  thought  long  or  unnecessary  by  those  who  read  for  information  and  not 
merely  for  amusement.  The  following  passage  justifies  what  I  have  said  :  "  Gjam-phel  sapiens 
"  mirificus,  quasi  QDH  (hkm),  Syr.  Kam,  >xb&  (plai)  Peli,  vel  &iam  &&  (pla)  Pele,  SAPIENTJ& 
"  miraculum,  aut  etiam  Arcanum"  *  Here  we  have  in  the  Gjam  the  lao,  the  Wisdom,  and  the 
Pala,  or  the  Pallium,  or  Pallas,  or  Minerva,  all  united.  A  little  before  he  says,  u  A  Syria, 
Chaldaeis  ea  vox  "  Gnos  derivari  potuit.  Syris  enim  Ganes  idem  est  ac  ostendit  et  demonstravit. 
Hinc  Indorum  "  Ganessa  SAPIENTIJE  Deus,  In  Sota  vero,  teste  Castello  >D>15  gnm9  yvco<ri$i 
"  notitia."2  Again  he  says,  "Profecto  Gnios  cum  superaddito  nota  w>,  quse  est  indicium  magni 
"  alicujus  arcani,  eadein  ipsa  est  Graeca  vox  YVaxrifr  gnosis,  agnitio" 3>  IE,  in  Syriac  lo,  was 
the  God  of  Wisdom  or  Knowledge.  In  Hebrew 'letters  lo  was  written  p>  io;  this,  as  the  He- 
brew letter  o  was  corrupted  into  ng,  was'tha  origin  of  thegnios.  The  God  of  Wisdom  was  the 
spiritual  fire.  He  was  Agni,  Write  this  in  the  Syriac  or  Pnshto  dialect,  but  the  Chaldee  letter, 
and  we  have  #y>  ioa,  the  last  letter  being  emphatic,  the  lo. 

Georgius  says,4  "  Pho-tha  Sinica  voce  dictus  Budda,"  (This  Pho-tha  is  evidently  the  Phtha  or 
Thas  of  Egypt. 5 )  "  Jah,  quod  additur,  JAO  interpreter,  magnum  scilicet,  et  ineffabile  iliud  Dei 
"  nomen  JBHOVA  a  Gnosticis  et  Basilidianis  corruption,  et  in  Jao  improbo  ingenio  mutatunu  Si 
"  cognita  fuissent  Tyrbani  nomina  magica,  quse  Budda  preceptor  Manetis  invocare  solebat,  inter 
"  ea  fortasse  reperiretur  JAO.  Nam  et  apud  Paganos  nomen  hoc  Dei  sanctissimum  erat  Quod 
"  quidem  eruditis  omnibus  compertum  est.  *  Fewardentiw  et  Galassius  aniinadvers.  in  S.  Irensei 
t(  libros  factum  putant  ex  Hebr.  n*  J&  cum  addito  o,  JAO.  Samaritani,  teste  Theodoreto  et  adno- 
"  tatore  Grabio  in  eundem  Irenaeum,"  Jabe  (here  we  have  the  Jave  or  Jove)  illud  appellasse  dicun- 
**  tur,  Judaei  vero  Ala  Aja,  quod  est  Hebraic^  n^  ie  Jah,  Tibetice  pariter  Jah*  In  his  igitur  voci- 
"  bus  PHOTA-JAH,  nominatus  cernitur*XACHA  tatnquawi  magnus  ille  Lhamarum,  et  Bonsiorum 
et  DBUS  BUDDA."  6  In  the  Aja  here  named  may  be  the  origin  of  the  Aje-mere  treated  of  in  Vol. 
L  pp.  405, 407, 408,  &c,,  atfd  in  the  whole  passage  there  is  a*  confirmation  of  several  other  sugges- 
tions of  mine  in  the  former  part  of  this  work. 

Georgius/  without  hating  the  slightest  suspicion  of  the  nature  of  my  theory,  states  his, opinion 
that  the  Kam-deva  is  derived  from,  or  is  the  same  as,  the  Qsrr  hkm  or  wisdom  of  the  Chaldee.  It 
is  very  certain  that,  if  my  theory  be  right,  every  deity  resolves  into  the  Sun  ;  each  one  of  their 
names,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  ought  to  have  the  meaning  of  wisdom.*  Kam  *tte  j^sa- 
pientia. 

Was  not  Ep«u£  often  used  as  the  name  of  Venus  as  well  as  Cupid  ?  In  like  manner  Kanya,  the 
name  of  Cristna,  was  also  the  name  of  the  Zodiacal  sign  Virgo.9  Ego>£  read  anagratmnatieally  is 


i  Georgius,  Alpb,  Tib.  p.  750,  *  P.  749.  3  P.  748,  *  P.  745. 

*  Vide  p.  747-  6  Ibid.  p.  746.  »  Ibid,  III,  p*  728. 

6  See  also  ibid,  750.  '  ^  Bentley,  p.  202, 


6 


GEOR&IUS. — SCAL  \. 


nothing  but  me,  from  which  Jesus  was  called  the  Rose — the  rose  of  Sharon — of  Is-uren.    And 
from  this  came  the  Rossi- crusians. 

The  Cabalistic  Jews  often  insert  the  jod  or  prefix  it  to  words,  as  they  say,  for  the  sake  of  a 
mystery;  but  in  reality  for  the  same  reason  that  the  Irish  Bishop  writes  his  name  X  Doyle. 
This  practice  admitted,  I  believe  that  C-ama  was  both  Cupid  and  Venus,  Cama  and  Cama-deva, 
HDD  kme,  desiderare,  amare,1  and  was  in  fact  C  or  X-ama.  See  pp.  760,  761 ,  and  Appendix  to 
the  first  volume.  Cuma  was  the  same,  as  was  also  Kumari  or  Komari  on  Cape  Cornarin,  near 
which  ruled  the  Xamorin  or  Zamorin,  or  Semiramis.  Was  Comarin  the  Coma-Marina  ?  I  believe 
that  Caesar  was  X-sesar — Tzar,  whence  the  female  Tzarina.  I  believe  that  IIX0YS,  as  I  have 
formerly  said  (Vol.  I.  p.  636),  is  I-IX0TS:  and  that  in  like  manner  also  Mama  is  M-ama;  that 
Momptha  is  M-Omptha ;  that  Mia  is  M-ia  or  M-ie.  I  is  the  tenth  letter  of  the  new  alphabet,  and 
M  is  the  tenth  letter  of  the  sixteen-letter  alphabet.  Then  *  i  in  the  Hebrew  notation  answers  to 
the  X  in  the  Etruscan,  Oscan,  or  Latin,  which  we  have  seen  stands  both  for  10  and  600.  This  is 
like  the  Samech,  which  is  the  Mem  final.  As  the  Samech  it  is  60  \  as  Mem  final,  600.  The 
S  called  Xi,  is  60,  X  Chi,  600.  The  Hebrew  m>  ss  is  six— Greek  ES  sg  six  j  the  aspirant 
breathing,  as  in  other  cases,2  being  substituted  for  the  sibillant  letter,  which,  however,  is  found 
in  the  Latin,  Saxon,  and  English,  «#. 

lodia  is  Ayoudia.  I  suspect  that  the  Ad  of  Rajahpoutana  and  Western  Syria,  and  Hadad,  is 
lad,  or  I-hadad ;  that  IE  is  lo  y>  io  of  Syria ;  that  God,  Chod,  is  Od,  Hod.  a  In  all  the  cases 
above,  the  I,  the  X,  and  the  M,  are  monograms  prefixed  for  the  sake  of  mystery,  as  we  constantly 
see  the  X  prefixed  to  sentences  when  not  used  as  a  letter,  in  our  religious  books  of  the  middle 
ages ;  and  as  Romish  priests  still  use  it, 

The  lod  is  a  point,  the  Centre  is  a  point,  every  thing  tends  to  the  Centre. 
The  word  Saca.  I  believe  is  found  in  the  Hindoo  word  Para-mchti.  The  Tibetian  language 
has  no  B.  Para  is  tro  #ra,  creator.  Sack  is,  in  the  Egyptian  language,  Jlamma,  and  Ti  is  Di, 
sacred^  holy.  Georgius4  says,  Para-sachti  is  6t  excellentissima  virtus,  &c.,  primam  emanationem 
"  Dei ;  Flammam  fluentem  a  Deo."  But  I  do  not  doubt  that  it  was  also  akme  or  hkm*  In  fine, 
it  is  divine  WISDOM.* 

Parasakti,  Adisakti,  Devaki,  and  Parakta,  have  all  the  same  meaning.  Para  or  Ad,  and 
Devaki,  mean  the  Deity,  and  sakti  aflame.*  These  are  also  the  same  as  Bavani  and  Mama-ja. 
Sometimes  Parasakti  is  masculine,  sometimes  feminine.  Sakti  is  also  the  same  as  verbum  and 
sapiential  Chati,  I  am  persuaded,  is  the  same  as  Sacti,  and  is  the  Hebrew  nm  hte,  and  in 
English  means  heat.  Substituting,  as  Parkhurst  says  was  very  common  in  the  Hebrew,  the  W  s9 
the  sibillant  letter  for  the  aspirate  H  A,  the  word  would  become  sati.  I  am  quite  satisfied  we  have 
here,  or  in  the  word  just  now  named,  Sci-akham,  the  meaning  of  the  Saca  or  Xaca,  and  that  it 
means  the  Logos,  the  Sapientia,  the  Ras. 

Parasakti,  like  Semele,  the  mother  of  Bacchus,  was  combustam  in  aethereo  igne.8  Sfre  was  con- 
sumed in  the  flames  of  her  son.  This  is  the  assumption  of  the  blessed  virgin,  which  took  place  in 
the  autumn,  when  the  constellation  of  Virgo  disappears,  and  is  tendered  invisible  by  the  solar 
rays.0  But  Para-sacti  was  Lachmi,  and  Lachmi  was  nothing  but  L'hkm,,  the  wise. 

fe  Ex  his,  quse  mecum  inter  viam  communicarunt  laudati  PP.  Cappucini  e  Tibetknis  Missioni- 
"  bus  reduces,  protinus  intellexi  tarn  arcto  et  inseparabili  vinculo  apud  eas  gentes  duo  hsec,  litteras 

1  Georg  p  728.  •  Parkhurst,  p.  776, 

3  But  Georgius  (AJp.  Tib.  p.  685)  has  shewn,  Ad  or  Adad  or  Hadad,  in  Syria,  to  be  Buddha. 

*  P.  97,  a  Ib.  p.  98,  °  Ib.  7  ft),  s'ib.  p.  102.  «  Vide  Dupuis. 


BOOK  I.   CHAPTER  II.   SECTION  1.  7 

"  et  superstitionem,  inter  se  cohoereseere,  ut  alterum  sine  altero  nee  pertractari,  nee  cogitari 
"  quaeat.  Ut  enim  video,  queni  admodum  defluunt  radii  &  natura  solis,  sic  litteras  ab  ipsa  Dei 
66  substantia  defluxisse  concipiunt.  Simile  quiddam  de  Vedam  Bramhse,  deque  Atzala  Isureni 
"  libro,  opinantur  Indi/'1  The  truth  of  the  observation  respecting  the  close  connexion  between 
letters  and  superstition  cannot  be  denied,  and  thus  this  beautiful  invention,  which  ought  to  have 
been  the  greatest  blessing  to  mankind,  has  been,  till  lately,  its  'greatest  curse.  But  if  at  first  it 
forged  the  chain,  it  will  break  it  at  last, 

On  the  Tibetian  alphabet  Georgius  says,  te  Aliud  quid  longe  majus  atque  prsestantius  de  litte- 
"  rarum  suarum  natura,  ac  dignitate  Tibetani  opinantur.  Istas  uti  prodigiosa  quaedam  munera  e 
"  coalo  demissa  venerantur :  Deoque  Sapientia  Giam-Jang  tanquam  auctori,  et  artifici  principi 
cc  referurit  acceptas."  When  I  consider  the  Deoque  Sapientice,  the  name  of  the  country  Achim, 
the  Pushto  in  North  and  South  India,  the  evident  Judsean  mythos  in  both,  I  cannot  help  suspect- 
ing that  the  Deus  Giam- Jang  is  the  God  or  lao  of  Siam  or  Sion,  in  the  country  of  Judia,  adjoining 
to  the  present  Nepaul  and  Tibet.  The  close  connexion  between  letters  and  superstition,  noticed 
by  Georgius,  tends  materially  to  support  my  opinion,  that  letters  were  at  first  mythical  and  magi- 
cal, and  we  know  that  they  were  every  where  supposed  to  emanate  from  the  Deity.  Georgius 
explains  the  word  Tangut  to  mean  Dominus  Cceli  et  Terroe.  If  the  T  be  a  nominal  prefix,  the 
a— K,  ng:r#,  u~i,  thus  Aou.  Tangut  is  the  name  of  God  in  Peru.  Georgius  then  goes  on  to  explain 
that  Ti~bet  is  Ti-bot,  or  Ti-bout,  or  Ti-Boutta,  or  Di-Buddha,2  He  adds,  "  Hoc'vero  recta  oritur 
"  k  gentili  Pot-Jid,  quo  certo  nomine  non  ante  famosi  Buttae  tempora  insigniri  ea  natio  ccepit/' 3 
Tibet  is  called  Potyid  by  Sir  W.  Jones.4  He  makes  an  important  observation  on  the  nature  of  the 
Tibetian  language,5  which  appears  to  be  in  a  great  measure  Monosyllabic,  and  thus  tends  to 
prove  its  antiquity.  He  then  goes  on  to  state  that  Jid  is  a  cognomen  of  Buddha,  and  means 
Unicus  or  IJnigenitus ; 6  and  that  it  is  the  ee  Jehid  Phoenicium,  aut  Ihido  Syrum."  (It  is,  in  fact, 
li-di.)  He  confirms  almost  all  which  I  have  before  given  from  Creuzer  respecting  Buddha,  On 
the  name  of  Xaca,  he  says  it  is  called,  in  the  Tibetian  language,  Sdakham.  That  is,  I  suppose, 
th,e  Sci-akham  or  Hakim,  just  now  treated  of. 

I  suspect  that  the  Phoenician  Jehid  or  lid,  is  nothing  but  the  Chaldee  II  of  the  Targums,  with 
an  abbreviation  of  the  Deus,  Dis,  Deva,  and  means  the  God  IL 

The  Deity  Isan  and  Isuren  of  India  was  the  Isis  of  Egypt.  The  name  came  from  the  Hebrew 
yw>  isoy  with  the  Tamul  termination  in  en,  Isur-en.  This  deity  is  the  same  as  Mahdeusr  and 
Mahadeva.  It  has  generally  four  arms,  and  is  often  seated  on  the  Lotus.  Fire  is  its  peculiar 
emblem.  It  has  three  teyes.  It  is  also  often  carried  on  a  BULL.  One  of  its  epithets  is  Hy- 
dropism, 7  This  is  the  Gre,ek  fifonp  and  Iir*£,  and  connects  it  with  the  refined  doctrine  of  water, 
which  approaches  to  something  very  near  to  the  spiritual  fire  and  the  hydrogen  of  the  moderns. 
It  is  adored  under  the  form  of  the  Linga,  or  Priapus.  It  is  Pluto,  the  Egyptian  Amenti  and  the 
Giam  Indicus*  It  is  Brahma  and  Tchiven.  6(  Dominus  humidce  natures  et  origo  sacrorum  flumi- 
"  num,"  the  Giam  Indicus — judex  universorum.  From  the  word  Giam  comes,  I  suspect,  the  Ganga 
or  Janga.  Finally,  Georgius  says,  "  Sol  est  Isuren,  qualis  erat  Osiris  apud  Egyptios."6 

It  is  said  of  Mani  that  he  left  a  book  of  paintings*  In  one  of  the  apocryphal  Gospels  Jesus  is 
said  to  have  been  the  son  of  a  Dyer  or  a  Painter,  another  of  a  Potter,  in  the  four  of  a  Carpenter", 
and  in  all  of  an  Artificer.  Georgius  says,  Cfi  Verum  non  opus  est  multis,  ut  ostendara  orfe&tales 


4  Georg.  AlpL  Tib.  pnjef.  p,  ix,  *  Alpfc.  Tib.  p.  16.  *  ftset  J);  10, 

4  Asfot  Res.  Vot  JIL  p,  10.  *  P.  11.  <  Ib.  p.  xi,  *  <ieorg.  Alpk  Tib.  p.  156, 

•  P.  185, 


8 


SCALA. 


£(  omnes  nno  eodemque  nomine  Pictoreni,  Tinctoremque  vocare.  Vide  Castellura  in  ym  (zko). 
"  Quum  vero  Arteng  diciraus,  eoque  designamus  Librum  picturarum  Mani,  (quia,  ut  inquit 
ef  Renaudotius,  figuris  peregrinis,  et  ignotis  refertus  erat,)  intellegere  debemus  Librum  eo  sensu, 
"  quo  intelligunt  Brammhanes  Vedam,  et  Tibetani  Cid  sive  Cioch.  Nempe,  ut  Fedam  est  Bramha, 
€t  et  ci6  Xaca,  ita  Arteng  est  ipse  Mani,  virtw,  emanatio  Patris  luminum,  efmque  Filius,  et  anima 
te  dans  et  accipiens  formas,  ac  figuras  omnes  in  eo  portentoso  mysterioruni  libro  contentas/'1 
Here  we  find  Brahma  and  Buddha  both  having  the  meaning  of  the  word  Book.  Here  is  con- 
firmed what  I  have  before  said  that  Feda  is  Seda  or  Buddha.  The  book  of  the  Manichseans  was 
called  the  treasure,  and  being  a  Veda  would  be  a  treasure  of  Wisdom.  Bacchus  is  called  Liber, 
ton  bha  and  mn  tut,  which  in  Chaldee  mean  Morus,  the  name  of  the  Morea  of  Greece. a  The 
Morus  or  Mulberry-tree  is  a  very  mystical  plant ;  it  is  said  to  be  sapientissima  arbor.  It  was 
probably  thus  designated  because  it  had  the  same  name  as  the  God  of  Wisdom.  Brahma  is  the 
same  as  Brahaspati,  who  is  worshiped  the  same  day  as  Suarasuoti,  (Sara-iswati,)  the  Dea 
sdentiarum:  from  this,  Georgius  says,  he  thinks  the  word  Brahma  came  to  mean  Scientia. 
The  truth  is,  wherever  Scientia  is  found,  Sapientia  may  be  written. 3 

We  have  seen,  in  p.  320,  that  the  natives  of  Siam  call  their  God  lach  lach,  the  Greek  lacchg. 
Now,  is  it  not  possible  that  in  the  Tibetian  language  this  may  be  the  Siakhim,  the  aspirated  ODH 
hkm— and  this  Siak  and  lacch  the  same  ?  Parkhurst  says,  the  aspirate  breathing  is  constantly 
substituted  for  the  sibillant  letter.4  This  would  make  Saca  laca.  The  festivals  of  Bacchus 
in  Greece  were  called  lacaea.5 

"  AtTyphon  ab  eodem  Plutarcho  exPhrygiis  literis  dicitur  filius  Isaacci  Icractxs  ra  'HpaxXee^ 
"  o  TLV$GW,  Isaacci,  quern  genuit  Hercules,  filius  fuit  Typhon."  d  May  Isaac,  the  son  of  Hercules, 
who  was  Cristna,  who  was  Samson,  have  come  from  yjtf>  iso9  to  save,  and  Xaca,  or  from  I  and 
Xaca,  or  from  yt£P  iso  and  cron  hkm  f  Either  of  these  etymons  is  strictly  in  keeping  with  the 
remainder  of  the  mythos. 

Brahma  is  said  to  have  been  the  inventor  of  Hymns  and  Verses,  and  the  Brahmins  are  not 
permitted  to  recite  but  only  to  sing  the  Vedas,  To  account  for  this  they  have  a  story  of  Brahma, 
like  Jupiter  for  the*  love  of  Leda,  being  turned  into  a  swan.  When  he  was  about  to  be  killed  by 
Iswara,  he  sung  hymns  and  verses  to  her  praise,  to  pacify  her.  From  this  came  the  story  of  the 
musical  singing  of  swans  when  they  are  about  to  die.7 

Brahma,  carries  a  book  as  an  emblem.  This  was  because  he  was  the  first  emanation  or  divine 
Wisdom,  and  the  Wisdom  contained  in  the  Veda  or  book  of  Wisdom  came  from  him.  Hence,  in 
Greece,  Bacchus  or  Brahme  was  called  Liber. 8 

I  think,  from  a  passage  in  Georgius,  the  real  origin  of  the  meaning  of  the  term  Judah  or  Juda,-— 
the  religion  or  the  name  of  the  tribe  way  be  discovered,— of  the  tribe  or  religion,  which  Eusebius 
said  existed  before  the  time  of  Abraham.  He  observes,  that  Buddha  k  cajled  Jid,  tvhich  is  the 
same  as  leoud,  who  was  the  s6n  of  Saturn,  «ind  that  it  is  merely  an  epithet,  meaning  Unigenitum, 
Hebrseis  est  w  (Mtid)  lehid  Isaa<so3 , epithet <im.  ?  Gen,'xxii.  2. 10  No#  I  think  this  shews  that 
the  tribe  were  followers  of  the  Unigenitum,  in  shorfy  of  the  Logos  or  Buddha,  who  was  the  only- 
begotten  of  his  Father. 

i  Tib.  Alph.                     9  Vail,  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  IV.  Part  I  p.  265.  3  Georg,  p  114. 

4  In  voee  »»  ss>  II.  p.  776,                   *  Vide  Hermes  Scythicus,  p,  136.  °  Georgius  Alph.  Tib,  p,  26. 

7  Vide  Georg.  Alph.  Tib.  p.  1 10.                           8  Ib,  p,  1 14,  '9  Bocliarto. 

1°  Georg.  Alph,  Tib.  Sect.  xi. 


BOOK    I.    CHAPTER   II.    SECTION  2.  9 

Again  Georgius  says, 1  u  Brevi,  Xaca  Jehid>  Ihido,  and  Xhid,  (quod  est  insigne  cognomentum  et 
"  attributum  Buddce,  But<z,  sive  Boto  in  vernacul£  voce  Tibeti  Pot-Tit,)  Poto  scilicet,  seu  Boutta 
"  Unigenitus  aut  Primogenitus."  He  had  before  shewn  that  Jehid  was  Juda;  hence  we  come  to 
the  fact,  that  the  tribe  of  Isaac,  Ihid,  or  Judah,  was  a  tribe  of  Buddhists. 

2.  The  Scala  or  ladder,  formerly  alluded  to  in  Vol.  I.  p.  413,  I  believe  signified  a  chain  or  ladder 
of  transmigration,  by  which  the  soul  climbed  up  to  heaven,  2  and  that  Scala  or  Sacala  is  Xaca-clo, 
and  came  to  mean  a  ladder,  or  the  ladder  of  the  Mount  of  Solyma,  or  Peace  or  Salvation,  from  the 
ladder  of  metamorphoses  or  regenerations.  The  system  of  regeneration  is  exactly  that  of  a  ladder. 
The  dream  of  Jacob,  with  the  seventy- two  angels  ascending  and  descending,  the  mysticism  of 
which  no  one  will  deny,  alludes  to  this :  the  Xaca-clo  is  the  series  of  ten  regenerations,  which  the 
Brahmins  taught  that  every  human  being  passed  through.  In  the  names  of  Sicily  we  have,  first, 
Siculia,  as  it  is  called  by  Virgil,  which  is  Xaca-clo-ia ;  this  was  Buddhist.  The  next  was,  Trina-cria 
or  Trina-crios— the  Triune  Aries  ;  this  was  Crestism.3  In  Vol.  I.  pp.  813—816,  I  represented  the 
double  trinity  and  the  system  of  emanations  to  form  a  chain,  the  last  link  of  the  first  forming  the 
first  link  of  the  second }  and  thus  the1  whole  system,  beginning  at  the  To  Oj>?  formed  a  chain  or  a 
ladder  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest. 

Is  it  possible  th&t  the  veneration  for  Apes  may  have  taken  its  .rise  from  a  word  of  the  ancient 
language— the  Chaldean  misunderstood  ?  Georgius  says, 4  *c  Simi&  Arabic^  QiTO  bram,  Boratn, 
**  Africanis  C313  brm,"  It  is  well  known,, to  all  Indian  scholars,  that  Crfetna  is  said  to  have  invaded 
Ceylon,  accompanied  by  an  army  of  Monkeys,  by  whose  means  he  conquered  it  \  and  we  are  told 
that  this  is  the  belief  of  the  country.  The  simple  fact  was,  that  the  sectaries  of  the  Crest,  the 
Brahmins,  invaded  it,  and  the  whole  arises  from  (the  identity  in  the  Indian  language  of  the  words 
for  Brahmin  and  Ape  or  Monkey.  In  this  manner  numbers  of  little  mythoses  have  arisen  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  In  a  similar  manner  arose  the  mythos  of  Bacchus's  grapes.  The  word  for 
grape  in  Greek  is  BoTpt^,  this  is  a  corruption  of  Buddha,  and  Bacchus  was  Buddha,  and  Buddha 
was  Wisdom;  whence  the  grape  in  Latin  is  called  ratf»w$—*evidently  the  Hebrew  Ras,  wisdom^ 
and  the  ePa|f,  the  stone  of  the  gra/pe. ' 

Salivahana  is  also  called  Saca* 5   In  Bali  they  have  a  period  called  the  year  of  Saca.  ° 

The  Grod  in  the  temple  on  the  mountain  of  Lawuh,  in  Java?  is  called  Sukuh,  7  This  is  the 
mountain  of  L/Awu  or  THE  Ieo9  and  his  name  Saca. 

The  krgfc,  .temples  in  Java  are  built  without  cement  in  the  joints,  in  the  Cyclopean  order  of 
architecture — all  the  st<me$  mortised  together. 9 

We  are  constantly  told  by  all  travellers,  that  the  Lama  of  Tibet  is  adored  as  God,  But  in  this 
I  do  not  doubt  that  our  travellers  permit  their  prejudice  and  bigotry  to  blind  them.  If  he  be  con- 
sidered to  be  the  Supreme  Being5  how  cajne  the  ,Tibetians  to  have  a  most  magnificent  temple  to 
Buddha,  at  Lassa,  the  place  of  the  Lama'6  vepicte&ce }  of  which  a  ground-plan  is  given  in  Georgius.  ° 
The  fact  is,  the  followers  of  the  Lamb  al  Rome  elect  their  Vicramaditya  or  Grand  Vicar  from 
themselves,  generally  choosing  the  most  imbecile  of  the  college  for  the  God  upon  earth,  as  he  does 
call,  or  used  to  call,  himself.  The  followers  of  the  Lamb  in  Tibet  have  found  it  better  to  select  an 


*  Sect,  cxxiu,  *  Vide  Georgius  Alph.  fib.  Ap.'iil  p»  678* 

9 

*  From  this  idea  the  division  of  any  given  space  into  equal  parts,  and  probably  from  the  decimal  &op(tita,l4M  parts, 
was  called  a  Scala  or  £calc. 

*  Aipfa,  Tib.  p,  28,  *  Cravrfurd,  Etet.  Ind.  Arch,  V<^  I,  p.  300,                          Ibid. 

7  i'b;  Vol.  II.  pL  18.  V  Ifc,  p.  W9,                                      &  geek'  cxliii.  p.  406. 

>  <J                                              July  28,  1833. 


10  JCTD31AN  MYTHOS  IN   EGYPT* 

infant,  whom  they  educate.    The  same  reason  operates  in  both  conclaves.    In  each,  a  similar 
cause  produces  a  similar  effect,— au  imbecile  Lama. 

The  whole  of  what  we  have  seen  respecting  Saca  and  the  Saxons,  must  be  considered  as  a  pre- 
paration for  an  inquiry  into  a  Pontifical  government,  (to  be  developed  in  the  future  books,) 
which  was  brought  with  the  feudal  system  to  England  and  Europe,  long  before  the  time  of  Caesar. 
It  will  be  found  useful  also  in  considering  the  origin  of  letters* 


CHAPTER  III. 

JUDJEAN  MYTHOS  IN  EGYPT.^MENES.     NOAH.  —  CHERES.-^ ABRAHAM  TULIS. — JOSEPH.'—  GEECIAN  HISTORY 
A  TBAVESTY.— IANGUAGE  OF  EGYPT. — DEISUL  VOYAGE  OP  SALVATION. 

I  NOW  beg  my  reader  to  recall  to  his  recollection  the  multitude  of  fragments  of  the  Christian  and 
Jewish  mythos  which,  in  his  reading,  he  must  have  found  scattered  about  Upper  Egypt.  I  beg 
him  to  look  at  and  read  the  accounts  of  my  Figures  27  B  and  35.  These  things  are  all  disguised  or 
instantly  put  out  of  sight  by  the  assertion,  that*  they  are  the  remains  of  the  Gnostic  or  Nfedtorian 
(that  is,  as  the  learned  Nimrod  says,  the  Buddhists)  Christians.  The  existence  of  the  mythos, 
which  I  shall  now  exhibit,  in  Egypt,  easily  accounts  for  and  explains  all  these  hitherto  inexplicable 
remains  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  mythos,  on  the  ancient  temples  in  Upper  Egypt  and  in 
Nubia,  As  might  be  expected,  the  prejudices  of  education  have  operated  on  the  learned  German 
Heeren,  to  blind  him  to  the  Jewish  and  Christian  mythos ;  but  ,yet,  in  one  instance,  the  truth  in- 
voluntarily creeps  out.  He  says,  "  Another  field  opens  itself  here  for  divines,  if  they  would  like 
w  to  compare  the  religious  notions  of  ancient  Thebes  with  the  descriptions  given  by  the  Jews  of 
"  their  sanctuaries,  the  tabernacle,  the  temple,  and  the  sacred  utensils. 

"  This  is  not  the  place  for  a  comparison  of  this  kind :  but  how  many  things  described  in  the 
u  Scriptures  do  we  find  in  these  engravings  !  the  ark  of  the  covenant  (here  carried  in  procession), 
"  the  cherubim  with  their  extended  wings,  the  holy  candlesticks,  the  shew  bread,  and  many  parts 
"  of  the  sacrifices !  In  the  architecture  itself  a  certain  similarity  is  instantly  recognised,  although 
**  among  the  Jews  every  thing  was  on  a  smaller  scale/'  *  In  his  maps  the  temples  of  Meroe,  in 
several  instances,  appear  built  in  the  exact  cross*form  of  our  churches, 

The  observation  of  Heeren,  I  shall  now  shew,  has  befen  confirmed  by  a  very  learned  Frenchman, 
the  Abb6  Gueriu  de  Rocher.  But  my  reader  will  be  kind  enough  to  observe,  that  although  the 
similitudes  pointed  out  by  Heeren,  amount  to  almost  a  proof  of  my  theory,  they,  in  -a  similar 
manner,  amount  almost  to  a  proof  of  the  falsity  of  the  AbbfeV  theory,  which  will  now  be  ex- 
plained. 

After  finding  the  Judaean  mythos,  the  mythos  which  Eusebius  asserts  existed  before  Abraham, 
in  North  and  South  India,  in  Syria,  and  in  China,  it  would  have  been  very  singular  if  it  had  not 
been  found  in  Egypt.  This  singularity  has  been  proved  not  to  exist  by  the  Abb6  Guerin  de 

1  Heeren,  on  Egypt,  Vol.  II.  p.  297 


BOOK   I.      CHAPTER   HI.      SECTIONS.  11 

Rocher,  who  has  undertaken  to  shew,  in  his  work  called  Histoire  des  Temps  Fabuleux9  that  the 
history  of  Egypt,  detailed  by  Herodotus,  Diodorus,  Suidas,  Manetho,  &c.,  is  not  a  true  history  of 
Egypt,  but  a  mere  travesty  of  the  history  of  the  Jews  ;  and  however  much  I  may  differ  from  him, 
both  generally  and  in  many  particulars,  yet  I  think  he  has  proved  his  case,  so  far  as  to  shew,  that 
the  two  were,  in  many  instances,  substantially  the  same,  as  they  ought  to  be,  if  they  were  nothing 
but  a  repetition  of  the  same  mythos;  but  which  they  could  not  possibly  be,  and  be  at  the  same 
time  both  true  histories  of  countries,  as  he  very  justly  observes.  All  this  tends  strongly  to  prove 
that  Herodotus  was  really  the  father  of  history,  the  first  real  historian :  all  the  works  before  his, 
being  mere  mythoses,  founded  on  the  traditionary,  unwritten  stories  of  each  country,  detailed  by 
the  priests  for  the  purpose  of  religion,  not  of  history* 

It  is  necessary  to  observe,  that  the  Abbd  does  not  pretend  to  shew  merely  that  parts  of  the 
Egyptian  history  agree  with  and  dovetail  into  such  parts  of  the  history  of  the  Jews  as  relate  to 
respective  periods,  but  that  the  Egyptians  have  taken  the  Jewish  history,  and  have  travestied  it 
(to  use  his  word)  to  form  a  new  history.  Between*  these  two  my  reader  must  perceive  that  there 
is  a  mighty  difference.  Had  he  shewn  the  former,  he  would  indeed  have  greatly  strengthened  the 
Jewish  history  as  a  history,  but  the  latter  is  another  matter, 

The  Abbd  has  exhibited  so  much  skill  and  ingenuity  in  discovering  the  meaning  of  several  para- 
bles called  parts  of  the  Egyptian  history,  that  I  have  no  doubt  whatever,,  if  he  had  been  unfettered 
by  religious  prejudice,  he  would  have  made  oat  the  whole  ,mythos.  The  discoveries  he  has  made 
did  not  arise  from  his  abstract  love  of  truth,  but  merely  from  a  belief  that  it  would  enable  him  the 
better  to  defend  his  own  religion  and  the  interests  of  his  order. 

He  supposes  that  the  history  of  Egypt  was  completely  lost  by  the  natives,  in  the  course  of  the 
period  when  the  Persians  possessed  it,  after  the  conquest  of  it  by  Cambyses,  -  Nothing  but  the 
excess  of  religious  prejudipe  could  have  induced  any  one  to  believe,  that,  in  the  short  time  during 
which  the  Persians  possessed  Egypt,  all  knowledge  of  their  ancient  history,  and  of  their  history  at 
that  time  not  properly  ancient  to  them,  should  be  completely  lost  by  the  natives,  and  also  that 
they  should  all  of  them  have  been  so  totally  devoid  of  understanding,  as  that  they  could  not  make 
up  a  story  of  their  own  to  pass  off  as  a  history  of  their  country,  but  that  they  should  be  obliged 
to  go  to  the  little  distant  mountain  tribe  which  Herodotus  could  not  discover,  said  to  have  been 
driven  out  of  their  country  several  hundred  years  before,  to  borrow  their  history,  by  a  travesty  or 
transfer  of  which  they  made  up  a  history  for  themselves  *  —not  using  the  names  of  their  own 
kings,  bat  actually  names  out  of  the  history  of  the  distinct  mountain  tribe  just  alluded  to  ?  The 
Abb6  has  been  attacked  in  no  very  measured  or  very  fair  terms  by  several  of  the  philosophers, 
on  account  of  his  etymologies  and  .other  little  matters  \  but  he  has  been  very  ably  and  successfully 
defended.  His  opponents  do  not  appear  to  have  touched  upon  the  absurdity  of  the  theory  to 
account  for  these  travesties,  or  historic  parables.  As  all  party  writers  do,  they  laid  told  of  ex- 
ceptions-^-they  seized  on  and  exposed  particular  points,  but  the  general  whole,  which  they  ought 
to  have  attacked,  they  left  untouched.  In  fact,  the  Abbe,  overthrew  all  their  previous  doctrines, 
,  and  not  having  the  least,  idea  of  any  universal  mythos,  or  other  cause,  to  account  for  the  unde- 
niable effect  pointed  out  by  him, '  they  could  give  him  no  reasonable  answer,  though  the  general 
absurdity  of  the  cause  ^hich  he  assigned,  or  the  way  in  which  he  accounted  for  the  effect,  was 
evident  £nopgh.  They  ought  candidly  to  have  admitted  the'  fact  of  the  identity  of  th$ 
of  Genesis  and  of  Egypt,  and  have  said,  "  We  admit  the  identity  vou  contend  for) , we  C 


1  Whyrdid  they  fcjtf  go  to,  their  atofolisK  wtioli  J&  qhai^fc*  W  ftopii  cohered  jvSii  ri^r  lafees  ?    Why  2  but 
because  M,Champoll^n  has  discovered  noihing! 

'          "       " 


12 


NOAH. 


"  deny  it ;  but  the  reason  which  you  assign  for  the  identity  appears  to  us  absurd,  and  we  cannot 
"  admit  it :  there  must  be  some  other  reason  for  it,  which  is  yet  unknown."  This  would  have 
been  candid;  but  instead  of  this,  as  defeated  parties  usually  uct,  they  had  recourse  to  ridicule, 
misrepresentation,  and  clamour,  and  endeavoured  to  poh-poh  him  down. 

The  Abb6  says,  "  Je  commence  par  les  temps  fabulcux  des  Egyptiens,  depuis  M£nfcs,  leur 
"  premier  roi,  suivant  tous  leurs  historiens,  jusqu'  au  temps  ou  T  Egypte^  soumise  aux  Perses, 
<ff  devint  une  province  de  leur  empire.  On  verra,  par  un  rapprochement  soutenu  de  toute  la  suite 
*'  des  rfcgnes,  et  des  faits  de  chaque  rfcgne,  que  cette  histoire  r£pond  &  1' histoire  sainte,  depuis  No6, 
*e  le  p£re  de  tous  les  hommes  d'apres  le  deluge,  jusqu'  a  la  fin  de  la  captivit£  des  Juifs  a  Babylone: 
"  et  que  ce  n'est  m£me  qu'un  extrait  suivi,  quoique  d6figur6,  de  ce  que  TEcriture  elle-m6me 
*c  nous  appiend  de  FEgypte  dans  cet  intervalle  ;  en  un  mot,  que  tout  ce  qu'  H^rodote,  Man^thon, 
"  Eratosthene  et  Diodore  de  Sicile  nous  racontent  del'Egypte  jusqu'  &  cette  £poque,  n'est,  aux 
"descriptions  pros,  qu'une  traduction,  a  la  v&ite,  pleine  d'erreurs  et  de  fautes  grossieres,  que 
"  les  Egyptiens  s'etoient  faite  ou  procuree  des  endroits  de  TEcriture  qui  les  regardent,  et  dont  ils 
"  s*6toient  composd  une  histoire;  c'est  le  sujet  de  trois  premiers  volumes  que  je  pr£seute  au 
cc  public.5' l  This  is  a  very  different  matter  from  having  taken  parts  of  the  Jewish  history,  to  fill 
up  the  lacunas  in  the  corresponding  parts  of  their  own  history. 

The  Abba's  assertion  that,  in  the  time  of  Menes,  the  first  king,  whose  name  was,  in  fact,  the  same 
as  that  of  Noah,  Egypt  was  a  marbh,  with  the  exception  alone  of  the  district  of  Thebes,  which  com- 
prised all  Upper  Egypt,  that  is,  that  it  was  covered  with  water,  is  in  exact  accordance  with  what  I 
have  said  in  Vol.  I.  pp.  291 ,  &c.,  and  336.  He  afterward  shews  that  the  history  of  Thebes  is  a  travesty 
of  the  history  of  the  flood  of  Noah  and  of  the  Ark.  That  the  same  particulars  are4n  both  the 
histories, — that  from  Thebes  the  doves  went  out, — that  the  name  Thebes  for  that  c\ty  and  the  ark 
are  the  same, — that  at  Thebes  an  immense  ship  was  built,  and  that  the  first  men  and  animals  of  the 
present  world  came  out  from  Thebes,  &c.,  &c«  •  But  I  will  now  give  to  my  reader,  an  extract  from 
the  work  of  Mons.  Bonnaud,  2  one  of  the  Abbess  defenders,  in  which,  abstracted  from  the  Abb6's 
book,  he  places  by  the  side  of  each  other  the  History  of  Herodotus  and  of  Genesis,  which  will  serve 
to  give  a  general  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  Abbe's  work  better  than  any  description  which  I  can 
write. 

Debutons  par  1'arche  de  Noe,  laquelle  s'appelle  en  H6breu  THBE,  que  les  Egyptiens  ont  prise  pour  le  ville  de 
Thebes ;  nous  verrons  en  suite  1'  histoire  de  Jacob  traveshe  par  eux  en  celle  de  S&ostns,  roi  conqu6rant.  Tenons- 
nous-en  pour  le  moment  £  ces  deux  morceaux  que  1'auteur  de  V  histoire  vMable 


1. 

hommes. 


HISTOIRE  D'   EGYPTE. 

est  celui  qui  regna   le   premier    des 


HISTOIRE  SAINTE. 

L  Noe*,  dont  le  none*  en  H6breu  est  N6  ou  Mn6e, 
son  derive,  (jui  signifie  r&pos,  3  esl  le  pfere  coramun  de 
tous  les  peuples :  c'est  danjs  1'Ecriture  le  premier  horame 
qui  r£gne  dans  un  sens  aprfcs  le  d&uge : '  puis  qu*  il 
se  trouve  le  chef  et  le  souverain  naturel  de  tout  le  sjenrc 
humain  reduit  alors  i  sa  famille. 


t  P.  xlh'L 

2  Vol.  V.  p.  6.    Histoire  Des  Temps  Fabuleux,  Tome  V.  8vo.  &  Paris.    P«ir  L'  Abb<£  Gu^rin  de  Rocher.    Chez 
Gautier  et  Freres,  et  Co.    1824. 

3  M,  en  H£breu  est  uue  lettre  servile  au  commencement  clu  mot     J'ai  cru  que,  pour  me  mettre  plus  t\  port6e  des 
lecteurs  qui  ignorent  les  langues  anciennes,  il  convenoit  d^crire  enlettres  ordinances  les  mots  H&>reu.r  clout  il  m'u 
fallu  toe  -an  frequent  usage,  vu  la  nature  de  1'objet  que  je  me  propose  de  cliscuter.    Ceux  qui  seroient  ourieax  de 
verifier  ces  mots  de  la  langue  H^braique,  peuvent  recourir  &  V  histoire  v&rlfable  des  temps  fabvleux. 


BOOK   II.    CHAPTER    III.    SECTION  3, 


13 


2.  Du  terns  de  Menes  toute  1'Egypte  n'&oit  qu'un 
marais  a"  ^exception  du  seul  nome  ou  canton  de  TJwbes, 
c'est-a;-dire,  qu'elle  etait  tout  inondde. 


3.  Les  habitans  de  Th&bes  se  disoient  les  plus  an- 
ciens  des  hommes. 


4.  A  Thebes  fut  construit  nn  grand  navire  de  pros 
de  trois  cents  coudte  de  long. 

5.  H&odote  dit  que  deux  columbes  s'  etoient  envo- 
lees  de  Thebes  en  differentes  contr6es. 

6.  Les  animaux,  suivant  les  Egyptiens,  furent  formes 
d'abord  dans  le  pays  de  Thebes. 


7.  Meiies  apprit  aux  peoples  £  bonorer  les  Dieux  et 
a  leur  faire  des  saci  ifices, 

8.  Mcn£s  fut  le  premier  &  introduire  le  luxe  de  la 
table. 

9.  Les  habitans  de  Th&bes  se  vantoient  d'avoir  e*t£ 
les  premiers  h,  connoltre  la  vigne. 


2.  Du  temps  de  Nofc,  non  seulement  VEgypte,  mais 
la  terre  entire  fut  inondee  par  le  deluge,  et  ce  nome 
de  Thebes9  qui  seul  ne  Moit  pas,  c'est  I'arche  qui  se 
sauva  du  deluge.    THBE  ou  comme  on  prononce  THE- 
BAH,  est  le  mot  constamment  employe"  dans  le  texte 
He*breu  pour  sigmfier  arche.     , 

3.  Thbe  ou  Thebah  (I'arche  de  Noe*}  renferma  en 
effet  dans  son  sem  les  peres  de  tous  les  hommes,  et  par 
consequent  les  plus  anciens  de  tous,  i  dater  du  deluge 
qui  fut  comme  un  renouvellement  du  genre  humain* 

4.  La  Thbe  ou  la  Tfiebah,  I'arche  de  Noe* ,  avoit  trois 
cents  coudies  de  longueur. 

5.  No6  fait  envoler  une  columbe  par  deux  fois  de  sa 
Thbe  ou  de  son  arche,  pour  s'assurer,  avant  que  d'en 
sortir,  que  la  terre  a  &6  dessfccbee. 

6.  L'Ecnture  dit  que  tous  les  ammaux  furent  ren- 
ferm^s  dans  1*  arche,*  et  en  sortirent,  Thbe  en  Hebreu 
signifiant  Tarche,  voil^t  comme  tou$  les  animaux  sont 
sortis  de  Thebes. 

7.  Mn^e  autrement  No6  au  sortir  de  I'arche  el&vo,  un 
aidd  au  Seignew,  dit  1'Ecriture  •  •  •  *  *  •&  offnt  des  Ao/o- 
caustes  wr  cet  autel,  par  consequent,  des  sacrifices*, 

8.  Noe*  aprls  le  deluge  eut  la  permission  expresse  de 
se  nournr  de  la  chair  des  animaux. 

9.  Noe*  en  sorcant  de  I'arche  fThbeJ  fut  le  premier 
qui  planta  la  vigne. 


That  the  two  stories  are  closely  connected  no  one  cau  doubt :  but  the  Abba's  theory,  that  the 
Egyptian  is  a  travesty  of  that  of  the  Jews,  to  which  the  Egyptians  had  recourse  in  consequence 
of  the  destruction,  by  Cambyses,  of  all  their  records,  receives  a  terrible  blow  from  an  observation 
which  he  makes  in  the  next  page — that  the  same  history  is  told  of  the  Grecian  Thebes  as  is  told 
of  the  Thebes  of  Egypt.  The  consequence  of  this  the  Abb£  does  not  perceive,  viz.  that  it  is 
totally  incredible  that  they  should  both  be  the  s&me,  without  a  common  cause,  and  this  coul,d  not 
be  the  conquest  by  Cambyses,  because  he  never  conquered  the  Grecian  Thebes.  In  fact,  it  over- 
throws the  Abb£*s  whole  system;  but  it  confirms  mine  beautifully,  viz*  that  the  stories  are  ail 
one  common  mythos,  in  all  countries  disguised  in  the  dregs  of  history.  Accident  could  not  possi- 
bly be  the  cause. 

The  Abba's  observation,  that  the  word  used  for  the  name  of  Thebes  is  exactly  the  same  word  as 
that  used  to  describe  the  ark  of  Noah,  again  overthrows  the  whole  of  his  system :  for  the  ancient 
city  of  Thebes  destroyed  by  Cambyses,  and  sung  of  by  Homer,  under  the  name  of  Thebes^  could 
not  have  had  its  name  given  by  the  priests  about  the  time  of  Herodotus,  which  is  what1  the  Abb6's 
system  requires*  The  very  great  antiquity  of  the  names  of  the  cities  of  Thebes  in  Egypt  and 
Greece,  as  proved  by  Homer,  takes  from  under  the  edifice  erected  by  the  Abb£  every  part  of  its 
foundation*  It  is  not  credible' that  one  or  both  these  cities  should  have  this  name  given  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  real  history  lost  in  Cambyses*  conquest,  though*  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
history  of  Genesis  and  of  Herodotus  are  the  same. 

S.  I  have  observed,  Vol.  L  p.  602,  that  the  kings  of  Egypt,  whose  names  ended  ia  oheres,  were 
renewed  incarnations  of  the  Xp>j£,  mitis.  On  these  kings  the  Abb6  says,  "  Myc6Hnus,  successeur 
de  Ch6pbren  ou  Cfyabryis,  appel!6  par  Diodore,  Mench&inus  ou  Cb€riuusj  par  Eratosth£ne, 


14 


CHERES. 


Caras  ouQcaras;  par  Manethon,  Men-cheres,  et  de  quantite  d'autres  noms  termines  en  eer£s 
ou  cherfes,  sans  compter  ceux  qui  ne  le  sont  pas ;  roi  plein  de  douceur,  de  religion  et  d'£quit£, 
qui  rend  an  peuple  opprinife  la  Iibert6  de  sacrifier,  qui  le  soulage  dans  ses  maux,  qui  se  rend 
recommendable  par  son  extreme  exactitude  £  rendre  la  justice:  qui  va  jusqu'  a  satisfaire  k  ses 
d&pens,  ceux  qui  se  plaignent  de  ses  jugements  :  qui  est  condamn£  par  1*  oracle  a  mourir  avant 
le  temps  ;  qui  prend  le  parti  d'errer  dans  des  lieux  solitaires,  oil  il  se  fait  6clairer  la  nuit,  comme 

le  soleil  V  6claire  durant  le  jour"  1 1  think  few  persons  will  fail  to  see  in  this  early  chres  or 

X^£,  the  prototype  of  a  later  one.    The  same  mythos  is  here,  and  this  cannot  be  disputed. 
We  have  here  in  the  mourir  avant  le  temps,  the  person  crucified  in  Egypt  of  the  Apocalypse.    The 
Abbe  after  this  proceeds  to  shew,  that  the  Cheres  was  Moses,  but  this  only  tends  to  strengthen  the 
proof  that  Moses  was  an  Avatar,  *  a  Messiah,  a  divine  incarnation,  saving  his  people,  in  fact  a 
Xp»j£.    Amidst  the  blunders  and  confusion  of  the  different  historians  of  Egypt,  it  is  easy  to  see 
here,  the  Christian  mythos  $  even  the  name  Xpj£  is  found  in  the  word  Chceres, 3  one  name  of 
what  is  called  by  Manetho  the  second  dynasty,  consisting  of  three  kings,  Has,  Sethen&s,  Chceres,4 
evidently  the  mistaken  Tripety.    And  we  must  not  forget  the  infant  Orus,  and  the  Virgo  paritura. 
4.  The  Abb6  finds  Abraham  in  Binothris,  whom  he  asserts  to  be  £n-  Thr6  mn-p  bn  tre,  or 
Ben-Therah,  son  of  Terah,    This  Binothris  he  shews  was  said  by  Manetho  to  be  succeeded  by  a 
king  called  Tulis.    Binothris  is  said  to  have  established  the  first  queen  in  Egypt,  or  to  have 
first  given  to  females  the  honours  of  Royalty.    This  queen  was  Sarah,  whose  name  when  changed 
from    Sarai  meant,   instead   of   a   queen  or  princess,  the  queen.     After  Binothris,  Manetho 
puts  Has  or  Tulis ;  but  this  person  the  Jews  and  Arabs  make  to  be  the  ravisher  of  Sarah.    The 
different  historians,  all  ignorant  of  the  true  state  of  the  case,  confound  the  parties  $  but  they  are 
all  evidently  here.    The  word  Tulis  means  ravisher  in  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic. B     Thus  Tulis 
or  Has  was  the  stealer  or  ravisher  of  Sarah,  the  sister  of  Abraham.    The  history  of  this  Tulis,  as 
given  by  Suidas,  is  very  remarkable.6      He  says,  "  Thulis  reigned  over  all  Egypt,  and  his  empire 
"  extended  even  over  the  ocean.    He  gave  his  name  to  one  of  its  isles  (Ultima  Thule).    Puffed 
"  up  with  success,  he  went  to  consult  the  oracle  of  Serapis  5  and,  after*  having  offered  his  sacrifice, 
"  he  addressed  to  him  these  words  :  *Tell  me,  Oh,  master  of  Fire,  the  true,  the  happy  par  excel- 
"  'lence,  who  rulest  the  course  of  the  stars,— tell  me  if  ever  there  was  before  one  greater  than  I, 
"  *or  will  ever  be  one  greater  after  me.'    The  oracle  answered  him  in  these  words  :  *  First  God, 
6 afterward  the  Word,  and  with  them  the  Holy  Spirit:7  all  three  are  of  the  same  nature,  and 
'make  but  one  whole,  of  which  the  power  is  eternal;  go  away  quickly,  mortal,  thou  who  hast 
'but  an  uncertain  life/    Going  out  from  the  temple  he  was  put  to  death  by  his  own  countrymen 
in  ,the  country  of  the  Africans."    (A$g«)v.)8    But  the  most  remarkable  part  of  this  story  is, 
that  the  word  Tulis  means  crudJM,  rhntle,  suspendit:  »&n  tlui,  suspends,  cmcifixus.    Here 
in  the  country  of  the  Africans— in  Egypt  we  have  again  the  crucified  of  the  Apocalypse.    Thlui 
is  the  name  given  by  the  Jews  to  Jesus  Christ,9  meaning  the  crucified*    Scrapis^  the  God  con- 
sulted, was  regarded  as  the  Saviour  of  Egypt. 10    I  have  little  doubt  that  Serapis  was  put  to  death 
as  well  as  Osiris,  but  that  he  was  crucified.    It  was  under  his  temple  at  Alexandria  that  the  cross 

'  Histoire  Des  Terns  Fabuleaux.    Tome  V.  p.  136, . 

8  The  word  Avatar  is  piobably  abl&-tur,  a  renewal  of  father,  Tur. 

3  P' m  4  P- 29?.  *  Ib.  p,  298. 

6  See,  for  the  answer  of  the  Oracle  to  Sesostris,  Vol,  I.  p,,805, 

8  Ib,  p.  403.  $  Th.  n.  30&  jo  IK  «  oAft 


c  f  < 

66  < 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  4.  15 

was  found  when  it  was  destroyed  by  one  of  the  Roman  Emperors.     We  cannot  forget  that  Serapis 
was  considered  by  Hadrian  and  the  Gentiles  to  be  the  peculiar  God  of  the  Christians. 

The  Egyptian  history  is  evidently  a  garbled,  and,  in  many  respects,  a  confused  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  same  history  or  mythos  as  that  of  the  Jews ;  the  Abbe  attributes  this  misrepresen- 
tation to  the  ignorance  of  the  Egyptians  in  the  Jewish  language,  but  who,  on  the  contrary,  must 
have  been  well  acquainted  with  it,  as  appears  from  their  names  of  men  and  places,  which  are 
almost  all  Hebrew.  It  is  much  more  probably  attributable  to  the  ignorance  of  the  four  Greek 
authors,  who  evidently  betray  their  ignorance  in  a  variety  of  ways,  and  indeed  confess  it.  But  the 
fact  that  they  are,  at  the  bottom,  the  same  niythoses  or  histories  cannot  be  doubted.  Here,  then, 
we  find  the  reason  why  the  Jewish  prophet,  Isaiah  xix.  18,  says,  that  the  true  God  should  be 
adored,  or  was  l  adored  at  five  temples  in  the  land  of  Egypt  $  and  here  we  find  the  reason  of  the 
pictures  of  the  Judsean  mythos  in  Egypt  in  several  of  my  groups  of  figures,  and  of  the  Judsean 
names  of  towns,  mountains,  and  districts,  which  I  have  before  pointed  out,  and  here  we  find  the 
meaning  of  the  expression  in  the  Apocalypse,  the  Lord  crucified  in  Egypt. 2 

But  it  is  a  very  important  observation  which  I  have  to  make  in  addition  to  this,  viz.  that  the 
text  (Isa.  xix.  18)  does  not  only  say,  as  our  Bible  renders  it,  that  one  shall  be  called  the  city  of 
destruction ;  but  it  also  says,  that  oite  shall  be  called  the  city  of  the  EBS,  firo^  12W  D"»nrr  e-er$9  or 
TH-JS  StJN,3  or  the  Saviour*— according  to  the  Arabic  u*js>  to  &a/ue>  Here  we  have  proof  of  several 
of  my  theories.  Here  we  have  the  Xpy$9  the  Chres,  the  Cfere's,  the  Epa$,  the  Eri,  and  Heri, 
and  Hari  of  Arabia,  all  identified  with  the  Sun,  and  with  the  Preserve*  and  Destroyer.  .  And  here 
we  have  the  Hebrew  D"tfl  ers,  the  origin  of  the  Sanscrit,  Eri  or  Heri,  Saviour. 

Of  late  I  have  never  closely  examined  a  text  of  the  Bible  which  has  not  brought  to  my  mind  an. 
assertion  of  the  Tamuls,  that  their  ancient  sixteen-letter  sacred  book  had  five  meanings.  I  am 
quite  certain  that  I  shall  be  able  to  shew — to  proVe*— • that  every  letter  of  the  Hebrew  had  four,  and 
I  think  probably  five,  meanings.  I  request  my  reader  to  consider  well  the  different  meanings  of 
this  word,  DIPT  erst  as  an  example.  I  have  lately  begun  to  have  some  suspicion,  that  it  was  with 
a  reference  to  this  mystery,  that  several  of  the  Hebrew  letters  were  what  we  call  similars,  but  that 
they  were  originally  identicals.  This  will  be  .scouted, — poh-pohed  down,  by  every  Christian  and 
Jewish  Hebraist  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  for  I  do  not  know  one  who  is  not  afraid  of  too  much 
being  discovered.  I  never  speak  to  any  one  of  them  upon  these  subjects,  without  finding  all  their 
eloquence  instantly  in  requisition,  either  to  shew  that  I  have  made  no  discovery,  or  to  shew  that 
it  is  quite  out  of  the  question  that  any  should  be  made  \  but  never  do  I  find  them  take  the  other 
side,  and  endeavour  to  clear  up  doubts  or  remove  difficulties. 

To  return  to  my  subject :  Although  there  are  many  things  in  which  I  cannot  agree  with  the 
learned  Abbe  Guerin  de  Rocher,  I  maintain  that  he  has  made  out  his  case,  that  the  history  of 
Genesis,  from  Noah  to  the  captivity,  is  to  be  found  substantially  in  the  history  of  Egypt,  which 
he  calls  travestied,  or,  as  he  says,  one  taken  from  the  other*  Then  here  we  have  to  all  appear- 
ance a  history  in  the  time  of  Hero-dotus,  which  is,  in  fact,  no  history  at  all  $  for  if  it  is  merely  a 
copy  or  travesty  of  the  history  of  the  people  of  Syria,  it  cannot  be  a  history  of  the  people  of  Egypt 
Here,  "then,  we  have  a  most  striking  fact  to  support  my  doctrine,  that  we  have  really  nothing  of 
the  nature  of  a  true  history  before  the  time  of  Herodotus.  And  here  we  have  Herodotus  searching 
for  history  in  Egypt,  deceived  by  a  mythos,  the  same  as  a  mythos  in  Syria :  and,  if  it  were  nOfc  a 

1  Here  is  a  double  reading  i>ft»  mu  and  »m  fat,  so  it  may  be  either,  There  shall  be,  or  Ttogrii  i&ve,fceen.    See  Pag- 
";*w$. 

*  See  Vol  I;,  p.  694,  note  3,  where?  fofr  Re?.!  8,  8,  read  Ben  *L  &  *  We  fieasenius  in  me. 


nznns. 


16  ABRAHAM  THUS. 

mythos,  what  could  induce  the  priests  of  Egypt  to  have  given  Herodotus  a  story  in  which  Abra- 
ham, Sarah,  and  the  other  persons,  in  the  Syrian  history,  were  actors,  as  Egyptian  history  ? 
Why  did  they  not  give  the  history,  or  the  greatest  part  of  it,  correctly,  as  we  have  it  in  Genesis, 
instead  of  travestying  it  ?  Of  course,  the  Abb£  takes  as  much  of  the  hifatories  as  is  enough  for 
his  purpose,  omitting  all  the  remainder;  but  we  can  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  the  remainder  of 
the  mythos  of  North  and  South  In,dia,  in  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Orus  and  Osiris.  The 
Abb6  observes, l  that  the  different  histories  are  confused,  but  that  certain  of  the  kings  are  but 
repetitions  of  Moses;  that  is,  reincarnations  of  the  Saviour.  They  are  merely  renewed  incarna- 
tions— of  course  as  we  have  found  them  in  India — all  having  a  family  likeness. 2 

I  have  often  suspected  that  our  LXX  is  not  the  work  which  Ptolemy  caused  to  be  made  from 
the  Hebrew  or  the  Samaritan,  but  is  a  translation  from  the  sacred  books  of  the  five  temples  of 
Egypt  referred  to  by  Isaiah.  Now  if  we  suppose  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews  to  refer,  and  to 
have  been  admitted  by  them  to  refer,  to  an  Eastern  Ayoitdia,  in  their  secret  doctrines,  they  would 
not  permit  this  to  be  publicly  known.  Of  course,  when  the  writings  became  public,  they  would 
be  believed,  generally,  to  refer  to  no  other  place  or  places  than  those  in  Western  Syria;  and 
immediately  all  persons  answering  to  the  description  of  the  Jews,  of  any  of  the  temples  scattered 
about  the  world,  would  be  believed  to  belong  to  the  religion  of  Western  Syria.  I  am  now  calcu- 
lating upon  these  secret  books  being  kept  secret  at  all  the  other  temples  of  Solumi.  (At  Tel- 
messus,  for  example.)  Of  course,  if  they  had  sacred  books  containing  this  mythos,  I  suppose  in 
every  case  they  would  be  accommodated  to  the  respective  localities,  as  we  have  found  them  in 
India,  near  Cape  Comorin,  and  as  they  were  in  Western  Judaea,  and  as  by  and  by  we  shall  find  the 
Xpj£*-ian  mythos  was  in  vast  numbers  of  places,  all  over  the  world. 

The  reason  why  I  have  suspected  our  LXX,  is  to  be  found  in  the  excessively  great  variation 
which  may  be  perceived  between  it  and  the  Hebrew — much  too  great,  I  think,  to  be  accounted 
for,  by  the  unintentional  corruptions  of  Origen,  with  his  obelisks  and  asteriks.  May  not  the  sole 
difference  at  last,  between  the  Jews  at  the  respective  temples  of  Solomon  and  other  Gentiles,  be 
found  in  the  Jews  being  a  sect  of  iconoclasts,  and  keeping  to  this  dogma  or  doctrine,  when  it  was 
lost  sight  of  by  other  nations ;  in  consequence  of  which  'their  religion  ran  into  all  kinds  of  absur- 
dities, from  which  that  of  these  temples  continued  free  ?  I  think  this  is  worthy  of  consideration. 
Since  I  wrote  the  above  I  have  been  told  by  a  learned  Jew,  that  my  suspicion  respecting  the  LXX 
has  been  proved  to  be  well  founded,  by  an  author  of  the  name  of  De  Rossi,  who  is  noticed  in 
Louth'g  Preface  to  his  Translation  of  Isaiah. 

5,  The  Abb6  de  Rocher  shews  that  several  kings  are  copies  of  Abraham,  several  of  Joseph, 
several  of  Moses,  &c.,  and  that  Joseph  was  the  Proteus  of  the  Egyptians  and  Greeks.  He 
observes  that  Joseph  was  called  a  saviour,  and  this,  from  the  peculiarity  of  his  story,  would 
be  of  no  consequence ;  but  the  Abbe  artlessly  observes,  which  is  indeed  of  great  consequence, 
that  St.  Jer0m  calls  Joseph  Redemptor  Mundi — here  evidently  letting  the  secret  of  the  mythos 
escape  him.  The  Abb6  was  not  aware  of  the  consequence  of  shewing  that  Moses  and  Joseph 
are  repeatedly  described,  by  different  persons,  particularly  the  latter,  as  a  saviour.  He  had 
no  knowledge  of  the  new  incarnations.  Both  Moses  and  Joseph  are  appellative  terms,  made 
into  proper  names,  This  raises  a  probability  that  the  same  history  was  told  to  the  people  every 
600  years ;  and  if  the  art  of  writing  were  not  known  by  them,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should 
have  believed  it. 

1  P.  138. 

*  In  Egypt  there  was  a  Cashmouric  district,  that  is,  District  of  Cashmere.— Spineto^  Lectures  on  Hieroglyphics, 
p.  87. 


BOOK  I.   CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  6.  17 

Eut ychius  says, l  that  the  first  city  built  by  Noah  was  Thebes,  which  he  called  Thamanim. 
This  is  strongly  confirmatory  of  the  theory  of  the  Abbe*  de  Rocher,  and  of  my  system,  that  the 
whole  mythic  history  has  been  in  Egypt ;  but,  as  we  might  expect,  accommodated  to  its  local  and 
other  circumstances. 

1  beg  my  reader  to  look  back  into  our  own  history  for  six  hundred  years,  and  consider  what  we 
should  know  of  it,  if  we  had  not  possessed  the  art  of  writing. 

There  have  been  a  hundred  and  seventeen  different  theories,  to  account  for  the  difficulties  in  the 
Egyptian  history.  2 

Speaking  of  the  Egyptians,  it  is  said  by  another  learned  Abbe,  the  Abbe  Bazin,  3  that  the  words 
I  am  that  I  am,  were  on  the  front  of  the  temple  of  Isis  at  Sais,  and  that  the  name  esteemed  the 
most  sacred  by  the  Egyptians  was  that  which  the  Hebrews  adopted,  Y-HA-HO.  He  says,  it  is 
variously  pronounced:  but  Clement,  of  Alexandria,  assures  us,  in  his  Stromatis,  that  all  those 
who  entered  into  the  temple  of  Serapis,  were  obliged  to  wear  on  their  persons,  in  a  conspicuous 
situation,  the  name  of  I-ha~ho,  or  I-ha-hou,  which  signifies  the  God  eternal.  From  this,  I  think, 
we  may  fairly  infer,  that  the  Egyptians  were  of  the  same  religion,  in  its  fundamentals,  as  the  Jews, 
An  attentive  consideration  of  the  passage  of  the  book  of  Esther,  where  tbe  Persian  idolaters  are 
described  as  being  put  to  death,  will,  I  think,  justify  me  in  saying,  that  it  affords  grounds  for  the 
opinion,  that  they  were  the  same.  The  book  of  Esther  appears  to  have  been  part  of  the  chroni- 
cles of  the  kings  of  Persia,  adopted  by  the  Jews  into  their  canon,  evidently  to  account  for  their 
feast  of  Purim. 

Herodotus  was  in  Egypt  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ,  and  Alexander  con- 
quered it  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ,  which  was  the  time  when  the  Greeks 
first  began  to  have  any  influence  there.  After  their  conquest  of  it  nearly  the  same  thing  happened 
to  it  which  happened  to  Carthage,  after  it  was  conquered  by  the  Romans.  Its  history  was  lost, 
except  the  tradition  that  it  had  been  previously  conquered  by  the  Persians :  the  reason  of  this 
was,  because  there  was  no  history,  the  art  of  writing  history  had  not  been  invented.  But  there 
was  this  difference  between  Carthage  and  Egypt, — the  latter  continued  a  nation,  the  former  did 
not.  These  circumstances  account  for  the  loss  of  the  particulars  of  the  Egyptian  history,  but  not 
for  the  loss  of  general  great  events,  easily  transniissive  by  memory. 

My  reader  must  recollect,  that  the  example  which  I  have  given  him  of  Thebes  and  Noah,  con- 
stitutes but  a  very  small  part  of  the  rapprochements  (as  the  Abb£  calls  them)  which,  in  fact,  rela- 
ting to  Egypt  alone,  fill  three  volumes.  It  is  selected  as  an  example,  not  because  it  is  the  most 
striking,  but  because  it  happens  to  be  the  first,  and  one  of  the  shortest- 

6.  But  the  Abb&  Guerin  de  Rocher  is  not  content  with  shewing  that  the  Egyptian  only  travestied 
the  Holy  Scripture ;  he  goes  much  further.  He  says,4  "  Je  crois  pouvoir,  en  effet,  montrer  assez 
clairement,  et  par  la  signification  des  noms,  et  par  les  principaux  traits  des  caract£res,  et  par  la 
fauite  des  faits,  quoique  souvent  alt6r6s,  que  ces  premiers  personnages  de  1'histoire  sainte  sont 
devenus  autant  de  rois  ou  de  heros,  dans  les  temps  fabuleux  de  1'histoire  profane,  et  surtout  dans 
les  poetes  de  la  Greee,  et  de  la  vient  que  les  hSros  d'Homere,  malgre  les  alterations  du  paganisme, 
conservent  encore  une  si  grande  simplicity." 

Again,  speaking  of  the  comparison  between  the  history  of  the  Architect  of  Rhamsinites  and  the 
tcfataiuent  of  Jacob,  he  says,5  "  On  ne  me  croiroit  pas  sans  doute,  vu  le  pen  de  resseuiblance,  si  je 


1  See  Vol  I  p.  755.  «  Guerin  de  Rocher,  Vol.  I,  p.  167. 

=»  Translation  from  his  MS.  by  Henry  Wood  Gandell,  printed  foi  North,  Paternoster  Row,  1829,  p  130. 

*  Vol  II.  p,  15.  «  Vol.  II.  p,  379. 

VOL.   II.  D 


18  GRECIAN   HISTORY   A   TRAVESTY, 

ne  faisois  un  rapprochement  assez  sensible  pour  operer  la  conviction.  Je  ne  fei'ois  pas  ce  devoile- 
raent,  si  je  ne  le  regardois  comme  une  preuve  decisive,  que  les  Egyptiens,  pour  composer  leur 
lustoire,  out  r^ellement  traduit,  el  tres-mal  traduit,  les  endroits  de  PEcriture  qui  out  quelque 
rapport  &  TEgypte :  cela  servira  du  moias  a  constater  de  plus  en  plus  sa  veritable  antiquite ;  ce 
sera  en  m&me  temps  un  example  frappant  de  la  maniere  pitoyable  dont  1'ignorance  et  Taveugle- 
ment  des  paiens,  et  du  peuple  mime  r6pute  le  plus  sage  parmi  les  paiens,  ont  alt6r&  ce  qu'il  y 
a  de  plus  respectable  et  de  plus  sacr£,  car  c'est  un  des  chapitres  les  plus  interressants  qui  se 
trouvent  dans  I'histoire  sainte. 

"  Ce  travestissement  une  fois  constatfe,  nous  servira  encore  a  en  rendre  d'autres  moins  incroj^ 
ables :  car  les  niemes  personnages  dont  ii  s'agit  dans  ce  chapitre,  se  trouvent  aussi  travestis  dans 
Thistoire  fabuleuse  de  la  Gr£ce,  ou  ils  sont  devenus  les  principaux  h£ros  de  la  guerre  de  Troie, 
sous  les  mimes  noms  traduits  en  Grec,  avec  les  ra^mes  traits  distinctifs  de  leurs  caracteres,  et  le 
mime  fond  des  principaux  faits,  comme  je  le  ferai  voir  dans  la  inythologie  Greque,  ou  je  montrerai 
en  mime  temps  quelle  est  la  guerre  de  Thistoire  sainte,  entreprise  pour  une  femme,  qui  est  deve- 
nue  pour  les  Grecs  la  guerre  de  Troie:  et  quel  est  le  morceau  poetique  de  1'Ecriture  qui  a  servi 
de  germe  a  Tlliade  d'Hornere,  comme  les  Grecs  eux-mimes  Tout  equivalemment  reconnu  avant 
moi,  sous  des  noms  traduits  dans  leur  langue." 

Speaking  of  the  Greeks  he  observes,  that  the  meaning  of  the  word  No£  ni3  null  in  Hebrew  is 
quies  and  requies,  (vide  Gen.  v.  29,)  and  that  "  Le  nom  de  Deucalion  se  forme  naturellement  en 
Grec  du  mot  Aevxo$,  suavitas,  dulcedo,  qui  signifie  douceur:  comme  le  nom  de  Sigaliou,  Dieu  du 
Silence,  se  forme  de  2J/y?],  siientium,  que  signifie  silence,  Aevxo$  Deucos  a  pu  avoir  ses  d£riv£s 
comme  §jy*j  a  les  siens— S^Ao^,  SiyaXsos,  &c.  Voila  done  Deucalion  qui,  par  son  nom 
mSme,  se  retrouve  itre  Noe/' x  He  shews  that  the  story  of  the  stones,  by  which  Deucalion  and 
Pyrrha  repeopled  the  earth,  is  only  a  mistake  arising  from  the  Hebrew  word  tz»>n  bnim,  filii, 
having  been  confounded  with  the  word  £Z301K  abnim,  lapides.2  He  then  shews,  that  No6  is  found 
in  a  similar  manner  in  the  Nannacus  of  the  Phrygians,  who  is  said,  by  Suidas,  to  h^ve  foreseen 
the  flood,  and  in  consequence  to  have  collected  and  saved  his  people  in  a  sacred  asylum.  This 
reminds  me  that  one  of  the  Sibyls  placed  Ararat  in  Phrygia :  that  is,  placed  a  mount  of  il-avarata, 
of  God  the  Creator,  in  Phrygia,  All  this  tends  to  shew  the  mythos  to  be  universally  spread  over 
the  world,  Nannacus  foreseeing  the  flood,  reminds  me  also  that  Enoch  says,  that  No6  foresaw  it 
— learnt  from  the  moons  or  planets,  that  the  earth  would  become  inclined,  and  that  destruction 
would  take  place.  But  this  I  shall  discuss  hereafter. 

Again,  Mons.  Bonnaud  says,  "  Mais  si  chaque  trait  de  ses  devoilem^ns  aura  de  quoi  surprendre, 
que  sera-ce,  quand  1'auteur  de  Thistoire  veritable  entreprendra  d'expliquer  comment  les  Grecs 
ayant  imaging  leurs  temps  hiroiques  d'aprfcs  nos  livres  saints,  en  ont  empruntg  ces  noms  illustres 
par  les  deux  plus  grands,  poetes  qui  aient  jamais  existe,  les  noms  d'Ajax,  d'En^e,  de  Diomede, 
d'Agamemnon,  de  M6n£las  >  L'on  verra  que  ces  noins  ne  sont  tons  que  les  traductions  de  ceux 
des  enfans  de  Jacob,  Ruben,  Simeon,  L£vi,  Juda,  Dan,  Issacar,  Zabulou,  &c.,  que  les  Greca  ont 
rendus  dans  leur  langue,  tantdt  avec  une  exactitude  litirale,  et  tant6t  avec  des  alterations  gros- 
si^res,  ddcouverte  assuriment  tres-heureuse  et  si  singuli^re,  quelle  parottra  un  paradoxe  incroy- 
able :  dicouverte  Kconde,  elle  nous  rev&era  un  myst^re  que  jusqu'ici  1'esprit  humain  n'avoit  pas 
mime  soup9onne.  En  effet,  quelle  sera  la  surprise  de  toutes  les  nations  cultivttes  par  le  goiit  de 
la  belle  literature,  quand,  par  une  suite  de  divoileniens  des  h^ros  de  la  Grice,  copies  sur  les  noms 

1  Vol.I.p  J74. 

2  Ib,  p.  175.   The  Abl><<  says,  that  Jameson,  in  his  Spicelegia,  has  proved  all  the  Egyptian  proper  names  Hebrew. 


BOOK  I.    CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  6.  19 

des  chefs  des  douze  tribus  d'Israel,  M.  1'Abbg  de  Rocher  fera  voir  que  la  guerre  de  Troie,  cette 
guerre,  dont  le  fracas  a  retenti  jubqu'au  bout  de  Tunivers:  cette  guerre,  dont  la  celebritfc  propage'e 
d'age  en  age,  et  perp£tuee  de  bouche  en  bouche  depuis  tant  de  siecles,  a  fait  placer  cet  evenement 
memorable  au  rang  des  grands  epoques  de  Thistoire:  cette  guerre  de  Troie,  chantee  par  un 
Homere  et  un  Virgile,  n'est  dans  le  fond  que  la  guerre  des  onze  tribus  d'Israel,  centre  celle  de 
Benjamin,  pour  venger  la  femme  d'un  Le"vite,  victime  de  1'incontinence  des  habitans  de  la  ville  de 
Gabaa ; l  qui  fut  prise  par  les  autres  tribus  confederees,  a  1'aide  d'une  ruse  de  guerre,  et  qui  fut 
a  la  fin  Iivr6e  aux  flammes  par  les  vainqueurs."2 

I  confess  I  should  have  liked  very  much  to  see  the  Abb6  attempt  the  Grecian  history,  as  he  has 
done  that  of  Egypt.  The  striking  marks  of  resemblance  between  parts  of  the  Iliad,  and  of  the 
names  in  it,  and  the  fabulous  history  of  Greece,  to  names  and  to  parts  of  the  Sacred  Writings, 
has  been  observed  thousands  of  times,  and  for  this  no  reason  has  yet  been  assigned,  having  even 
the  slightest  degree  of  probability — unless  the  doctrine  of  a  common  and  universal  mythos  in 
an  universal  language,  as  proposed  to  be  proved  in  this  work,  be  considered  to  possess  such 
probability. 

I  think  it  expedient  here  to  add  some  observations  from  another  learned  Abbe  respecting  the 
Grecian  Bacchus.  In  Bacchus  we  evidently  have  Moses.  Herodotus  says  he  was  an  Egyptian, 
brought  up  in  Arabia  Felix,  The  Orphic  verses  relate  that  he  was  preserved  from  the  waters, 
in  a  little  box  or  chest,  that  he  was  called  Misem  in  commemoration  of  this  event ;  that  he  was 
instructed  in  all  the  secrets  of  the  Gods ;  and  that  he  had  a  rod,  which  he  changed  into  a  serpent 
at  his  pleasure ;  that  he  passed  through  the  Red  Sea  dry-shod,  as  Hercules  subsequently  did,  in 
his  goblet,  through  the  Straits  of  Abila  and  Calpe  5  and  that  when  he  went  into  India,  he  and  his 
army  enjoyed  the  light  of  the  Sun  during  the  night :  moreover,  it  is  said,  that  he  touched  with  his 
magic  rod  the  waters  of  the  great  rivers  Orontes  and  Hydaspes  5  upon  which  those  waters  flowed 
back  and  left  him  a  free  passage.  It  is  even  said  that  he  arrested  the  course  of  the  sun  and  moon. 
He  wrote  his  laws  on  two  tables  of  stone.  He  was  anciently  represented  with  horns  or  rays  on 
his  head.3 

We  see  Bacchus,  who  in  so  many  other  particulars  is  the  same  as  Moses,  is  called  Misem,  in 
commemoration  of  his  being  saved  from  the  water.  Gessenius,  in  his  explanation  of  the  word 
Moses,  says  it  is  formed  of  fw»  water  and  u<raj$  delivered.  1  can  find  no  Greek  /£«>  for  water  in 
my  Lexicons.  But  Misem  may  be  the  Saviour— yttf>  iso9  the  Saviour  D  m.  And  when  I  recollect 
all  that  I  have  said  in  Vol.  L  pp.  5305  531,  respecting  the  sacredness  of  water,  and  what  Mr. 
Payne  Knight  has  said  of  the  derivation  of  the  word  Ice,  and  that  Bacchus  was  Isis  and  Omadios, 
I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  there  is  another  mystery  under  this  name,  which  I  cannot  fully 
explain. 

We  have  found  the  Mosaic  mythos  in  China,  in  North  India,  and  it  was  found  in  South  India 
by  the  Jesuits :  then,  according  to  the  Abbe*,  Genesis  must  have  been  travestied  in  all  these  places, 
as  well  as  in  Egypt  and  Greece.  This  circumstance  raises  another  insurmountable  objection  to 
the  Abb&'s  theory,  but  it  supports  mine. 


1  "  II  cst  remarkable,  en  efet,  qu*  en  Hebreu  le  mot  Gabaa,  qui  veut  dire  un  lieu  eleve*,  a  le  meme  sens  que  Pergarna, 
en  Grec,  qui  est  aussi  le  nom  qu*on  donne  a  Troie.** 

*  **  Mons.  P  Abbe*  dit,  que  la  guerre  de  Troie  est  prise  de  la  guerre  des  Tribus,  raeontfa  &  la  fin,  du  Lwte  des  Juges* 
Oe  morceau  de  PEcriture  est  le  dix-neuvieme  et  le  vingtieme  chapitre  du  Livre  des  Juges." 

3  Abbe*  Bazin,  by  Wood  Gandell,  p.  158*    This  ought  to  have  come  in  another  part  of  the  work,  but  like  many 
other  passages  it  was  not  copied  till  the  other  parts  were  printed* 

D2 


20  LANGUAGE    OF   EGYPT — DEISUL  VOYAGE  OF   SALVATION. 

My  reader  will  probably  recollect  that  I  have  formerly  shewn  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joshua  Barnes 
published  a  work  to  prove  that  Solomon  was  the  author  of  the  Iliad. l 

The  idle  pretence  that  because  the  Egyptians  had  lost  their  own  history  they  had  recourse  to 
that  of  the  Jews,  is  at  once  done  away  with  by  the  Abba's  observation  respecting  Thebes,  and 
that  all  the  same  history  is  to  be  found  among  the  Greeks  as  among  the  Egyptians.  I  feel  little 
doubt  that  it  was  the  discovery  by  the  priests  that  this  fact  overthrew  the  Abba's  theory,  and  led 
to  consequences  of  a  very  different  nature,  which  prevented  him  from  keeping  his  promise,  to 
shew,  in  a  future  work,  that  the  Greek  and  Latin  history  was  the  same  as  the  Egyptian,  and  not 
the  dispersion  of  his  papers  in  the  Revolution:  but  this  I  most  exceedingly  regret.  His  success 
in  the  case  of  Deucalion  andNannacus  makes  it  probable  that  he  could  have  performed  his  promise 
if  he  had  thought  proper. 

7.  The  learned  writer,  in  the  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,  whom  I  have  several  times  before 
quoted,  says,2  "By  the  description  above  translated,  (the  passage  of  Clemens  relating  to  hiero- 
"  glyphics,)  it  plainly  appears  that  the  sacred  character  of  the  Egyptians  was  entirely  different 
"  from  the  hieroglyphic:  and  by  this  consideration  we  are  in  a  good  measure  justified  in  sup- 
"  posing,  as  we  have  done  all  along,  that  the  sacred  letters  of  the  Egyptians  were  actually  the 
"  Chaldaic.  The  inscriptions  on  the  obelisks,  mentioned  by  Cassiodorus,  so  often  quoted,  were 
"  certainly  engraved  in  the  sacred  character ;  and  the  character  in  which  they  were  drawn  was 
"  that  above-mentioned.  If  the  sacred  letters  were  Chaldaic,  the  sacred  language  was  probably 
<c  the  same." 

It  is  a  very  remarkable  circumstance  that  we  should  here  find  the  old  Hebrew  or  Chaldee 
language,  for  they  were  both  the  same,  to  be  the  oldest  used  in  Egypt.  Did  the  Egyptians 
change  their  language,  out  of  compliment  to  those  pastors  or  shepherds  whom  they  permitted  to 
reside  in  a  corner  of  their  country,  and  at  last  expelled?  The  fact  was,  I  have  no  doubt,  that 
the  language  was  the  ancient  Coptic,  which  was  Hebrew  or  Chaldee.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  forms 
of  the  letters  used,  because  these  were  changed  by  caprice  every  day  j  nor,  indeed,  of  the  written 
language  5  for  it  must  have  been  a  Masonic  secret.  I  cannot  doubt  that  1000  years  before  the 
captivity,  the  Chaldee,  the  Hebrew,  the  Syriac,  and  the  Coptic,  were  all  the  same  languages. 

The  case  of  the  five  dialects  of  the  Celtic,  namely,  the  Scotch,  the  Manks,  the  Irish,  the  Welsh, 
and  the  Cornish,  is  exactly  similar  to  that  of  the  Egyptians  named  above.  The  natives  of  these 
places  do  not  now  generally  understand  one  another,  but  yet  no  one  can  doubt  that  they  did  all 
understand  one  another  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  years  ago,  and  that  they  are  merely  dialects 
of  the  same  Celtic  language. 

In  the  epithet  cheres,  borne  by  many  of  the  kings,  we  have  clearly  the  Xpywpw  or  #— prr 
=600;  TorX=300  <r-200  ?=100-600.  In  the  later  Ptolemies  the  Crestologia  is  shewn  in 
their  names— Soter,  Philadelphus,  &c.  X^s  was  but  an  epithet,  mitis,  benignus,  applied  to  the 
divine  incarnation— to  the  person  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  possessing  the  crown  by  divine 
right. 

8.  I  beg  that  my  reader  would  now  reconsider  the  circumstances,  that  we  have  found  a  repetition 
of  the  same  mythos  of  Moses,  &c,,  &c.,  in  several  countries;  secondly,  that  the  voyages  of 
salvation  or  processions  about  the  country,  or  Deisuls,  as  they  were  called  in  Britain,  are  found 
in  most  countries ;  and,  thirdly,  that  it  appears  probable,  from  the  practice  of  the  Roman  Church 
in  scenically  representing  all  the  acts  of  the  Saviour  in  the  course  of  every  year,  that  these  pro- 

1  See  Vol  L  p,  364.  *  Art.  Phil  S,  73. 


BOOK  1.    CHAPTER  IV.   SECTION  3.  21 

cessions  or  relations  of  the  Mosaic  history  in  the  different  countries,  were  originally  nothino-  m0re 
than  the  scenical  representation  of  the  first  mythos,  which  probably  arose  originally  in  Ayoudia, 
and  in  process  of  time  come  to  be  believed  by  the  people  who  performed  them.  This  scenieal 
representation  arose  before  the  knowledge  of  letters,  and  was  invented  in  order  to  keep  the 
scheme  from  being  lost;  and  I  think  it  not  at  all  unlikely,  that  the  whole  vulgar  mythos  of  an 
incarnated  person  was  a  parable,  invented  by  the  philosophers  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  their 
refined  and  beautiful  doctrines,  and  their  cycles  and  astronomy,  from  being  lost  I  can  imagine 
nothing  so  likely  to  answer  this  intended  end,  before  letters  were  invented. 

It  seems  probable  that  there  was  the  same  multiplication  of  the  mythos  in  Egypt  in  the  different 
districts,  which  we  have  found  in  Greece  and  other  countries ;  and,  that  the  reiteration  of  the 
different  Moseses,  Josephs,  Chereses,  in  dynasties,  was  nothing  but  the  repetition  of  the  different 
incarnated  Saviours  for  the  same  seeculum  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  They  have  often 
been  thought  to  have  been  contemporaneous  sovereigns,  by  different  authors.  This  exactly  suits 
my  theory.  We  know  they  had  the  voyages  of  salvation  the  same  as  in  Greece.  When  Egypt 
was  divided  into  small  states,  each  would  have  its  Saviour,  its  voyage  of  Salvation,  or  Dei-sul, 
or  holy  procession,  its  Olympus,  Meru,  &c.,  and  its  mythos  of  an  immaculate  conception,  cru- 
cifixion, resurrection,  &c.,  &c. :  but  when  it  became  united  under  one  head,  it  would  have,  as  we 
read,  one  for  the  whole  country,  which  annually  made  a  procession  the  whole  length  of  the  Nile. 

I  now  request  my  reader,  before  we  proceed  to  any  other  subject,  to  reflect  well  upon  what 
we  have  found  in  the  Abbe's  work.  Let  him  think  upon  the  two  cities  of  Thebes,  or  the  ark 
from  which  pigeons  were  sent  out,  and  from  which  all  animals  and  men  descended,  &c.  Let 
him  remember  Hercules  three  days  in  the  Dag,  and  Jonas  three  days  in  the  Fish.  Let  him 
remember  Samson's  likeness  to  Hercules.  Let  him  remember  Iphigenia  and  Jephthah's  daughter, 
&c.,  &c.,  &c.,  and  then  let  him  account,  if  he  can,  for  these  things,  in  any  other  \vay  than  that 
which  I  have  pointed  out. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LORD  KINGSBOROUGH  ON  MEXICO.— MALCOLMS.— •  MEXICAN  MYTHOS  THE  SAME  AS  THAT  OF  THE  OLD 
WORLD. —HUMBOLDT  AND  SPINETO. —  CHRONOLOGY  AND  CYCLIC  PERIODS.  —  TOWERS  OF  MEXICO  AND 
BABEL,  —  JEWISH  LANGUAGE  AND  MEXICAN  RITES.  —  CROSS  AND  CRUCIFIXES.  —  IMMACULATE  CONCEP- 
TION. FEMALE  PRINCIPLE.  —  HUMBOLDT.  —  BOCHICA,  PERUVIAN  RITES,  &C.  —  THE  ASS  AND  HORSE. 
RACES  OF  MEN.  —  CHINA.  TIBET.  SPANISH  POLICY.  —  LAWS  OF  THE  MEXICANS,  —  EASTER  ISLAND. — 
LAST  AVATAR  EXPECTED.— TOD  ON  TIBET.  ISLAND  SUNK.  JEWISH  MYTHOS. — GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

1 .  I  MUST  now  draw  my  reader's  attention  to  perhaps  the  most  curious  of  all  the  subjects  hitherto 
discussed,  and  that  is,  the  history  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  It  might  be  supposed  that  these,  of  all 
nations,  were  the  least  likely  to  afford  any  useful  information  respecting  the  system  or  mythos 
which  I  have  been  unveiling;  but  they  are,  in  fact,  rich  in  interesting  circumstances,  that  have 


22  MALCOtMB. 

hitherto  been  totally  inexplicable,  but  which  are  easily  explained  on  the  hypothesis,  that  there 
was,  in  very  early  times,  an  universal  empire  governed  by  a  learned  priesthood. 

Many  months  after  the  Anacalypsis  had  been  in  the  press,  Lord  Kingsborough's  magnificent 
work  on  Mexico  made  its  appearance.    This  will  account  for  the  manner  in  which  I  have  spoken 
of  Mexican  hieroglyphics  in  the  first  volume*    My  reader  will  readily  believe  me  when  I  say  it 
was  with  great  pleasure  I  discovered  in  every  part  of  that  work  circumstances  which  can  only  be 
accounted  for  on  the  theory  laid  down  by  me,  and  which  therefore  confirm  it  in  a  very  remarkable 
manner.    His  Lordship's  difficulties  are  very  striking :  the  language  of  the  Jews,  their  mythos, 
laws,  customs,  are  every  where  apparent.    This  his  Lordship  accounts  for  by  supposing  that  in 
ancient  times  colonies  of  Jews  went  to  America  from  Alexandria.    But  this  by  no  means  accounts 
for  the  difficulty,  because  the  Trinity,  the  Crucifixion,  and  other  doctrines  of  Christianity,  are  in- 
termixed with  every  part  of  the  Jewish  rites,  which  must  be  accounted  for  5  therefore,  to  remove 
this  new  difficulty,  he  is  obliged  to  suppose  that  Christian  missionaries,  in  the  early  times  of  the 
gospel,  found  their  way  to  America,    Now  admitting  this  to  have  taken  place,  its  insufficiency  to 
account  for  the  various  incomprehensible  circumstances,  if  not  already,  will  very  shortly  be  clearly 
proved.  The  South  Americans  had  not  the  knowledge  of  letters  when  the  Spaniards  arrived  among 
them,  nor  did  they  know  the  use  of  iron.     These  facts  are  of  themselves  almost  enough  to  prove, 
and  really  do  prove,  when  combined  with  other  circumstances,  that  the  Jewish  customs  and  doc- 
trines could  not  have  been  carried  to  them  from  Alexandria,  as  above  suggested,  or  by  modern 
Christians,  who  would  have  instantly  set  them  to  digging  their  mountains ; l   but,  on  the  contrary, 
these  facts  prove  that  the  colonization  must  have  taken  place  previously  to  the  discovery  of  iron 
by  the  natives  of  the  old  world,  long  before  Alexandria  was  built ; 2  and  this  agrees  very  well  with 
their  ignorance  of  the  use  of  an  alphabet    The  two  facts  exhibit  the  mythos  in  existence  at  a 
period  extremely  remote  indeed.    For,  the  identity  of  rites,  such  as  circumcision,  &c*,  found  in 
India,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  South  America,  puts  the  great  antiquity  and  identity  of  the  mythoses  out 
of  all  doubt. 

2.  David  Malcolme,  in  his  book  called  Antiquities  of  Britain,  (which  is  so  ingeniously  contrived 
that  it  cannot  be  referred  to  by  chapter,  number,  page,  or  in  any  other  way,)  gives  the  following 
passage  as  an  extract  from  Salmon's  Modern  History:3  "  St.  Austin,  speaking  of  the  notion  some 
"  entertained  of  another  continent,  he  says,  *  It  is  not  agreeable  to  reason  or  good  sense  to  affirm, 
ee  that  men  may  pass  over  so  great  an  ocean  as  the  Atlantic  from  this  continent  to  a  new-found 
"  world,  or  that  there  are  inhabitants  there,  all  men  being  descended  from  the  first  man  Adam.59  Now 
this  shews  that,  from  the  time  of  Christ  to  the  fourth  century,  when  this  African  bishop  lived,  but 
then  resided  at  Rome,  there  had  been  no  colonization.  It  was  impossible  to  have  taken  place 
without  his  knowledge,  and  this  absolutely  proves  the  truth  of  the  existence  of  the  %p^sr-ian 
mythos  before  the  time  of  Christ. 

The  jealousy  of  the  Pope  and  the  court  of  Spain,  in  keeping  all  strangers  away  from  South 
America,  even  to  the  extreme  length,  for  many  years,  of  excluding  their  own  bishops  and  secular 
clergy,  and  permitting  no  priests  but  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  to  go  thither,  is  accounted  for. 
The  clear  and  unquestionable  doctrines  of  Judaism  and  Christianity,  which  must  have  existed 
before  the  time  of  Christ,  evidently  overthrew  all  their  vulgar  exoteric  doctrines,  whatever  they 

1  Mexico  is  one  of  the  few  places  where  native  iron  is  found,  (see  Vallancey'a  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  VL  p.  422,)  and  it 
lies  in  masses  on  the  sides  of  their  mountains  in  the  greatest  abundance. 

*  According  to  the  Arundelian  maibles,  iron  was  not  found  out  till  188  years  before  the  war  of  Troy,    Ibid, 
3  Vol.  28th,  but  the  first  concerning  America,  Introd.  Part  4th  and  5th. 


BOOK   I.   CHAPTER    IV.   SECTION   3.  23 

might  do  with  the  esoteric  or  those  iu  the  conclave.  Lord  Kingsborough  says,1  "But  one  solu- 
"  tion  offers  itself  from  all  the  difficulties  and  mysteries  which  seem  to  be  inseparable  from  the 
"  study  of  the  ancient  monuments,  paintings,  and  mythology,  of  the  Mexicans;  and  that  is,  the 
"  presence  of  the  Jews  in  the  new  world."  Had  his  Lordship  said  the  Judaic  mythos,  he  would 
have  been  right ;  for  nothing  can  be  more  clear  than  that  it  is  all  substantially  there,  and  most  in- 
timately mixed,  actually  amalgamated,  he  might  have  added,  with  the  Christian. 

3.  The  similarity  between  the  Jews,  Christians,  and  South  Americans,  is  sufficiently  striking! 
but  there  is  yet  something  to  me  still  more  so,  which  is,  that  several  of  the  doctrines  which  1  have 
advocated  in  this  work,  unknown  to  the  vulgar  Jews  and  Christians  of  this  day,  are  to  be  found  in 
Mexico.  Their  Triune  God,  their  Creator,  is  called  by  the  names  Yao  and  Horn.  Lord  Kings- 
borough  says,2  "  Hom-eyoca,  which  signifies  the  place  in  which  exists  the  Creator  of  the  uni- 
«  verse,  or  the  First  Cause,  to  whom  they  gave  the  name  of  Honi-eteuli,  which  means  the  God  of 

"  three-fold  dignity,  or  three  Gods,  the  same  as  Ol-om-ris j  and  by  another  name, 

"  Hom-eican,  that  is  to  say,  the  place  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  who,  according  to  the  opinion  of  many 
"  of  their  old  men,  begot,  by  their  WORD,  CIPATENAL,  and  a  woman  called  X-UMIO." 

In  the  Hom-eyo-ca,  when  joined  with  the  other  circumstances,  I  cannot  but  recognize  the  Om 
and  Ai — j*>  oy  om4a>  place  of  Om.  And  again,  in  Hom~ei-can  the  Aom-iao-ania,  the  place  ur 
country  of  the  Self-existent  (ir  ie]  Horn,  who  is  called  the  Trinity.  And  what  are  we  to  make  of 
the  Horn,  the  Father  of  the  WORD,  by  the  Logos  ? 

The  Father  of  the  American  Trinity  is  called  Om-equeturiqui,  ou  bien  Urago-Zoriso  ,•  le  nom 
du  Fils  est  Urus-ana,  et  1'Esprit  se  nomme  Urupo.3  Here  the  Om  of  North  India,  the  Urus  or 
Beeve,  and  the  j0£-ruh,  that  is,  the  ruh,  are  very  distinct.  These  have  evidently  not  come  from 
modern  Christianity,  but  from  the  ancient  system  in  the  most  ancient  of  times.  Teutle  is  re* 
peatedly  said  to  mean  ®so$  or  God.  Sahagun  says  the  Mexicans  had  a  God,  the  same  as  Bac- 
chus, called  Ometeuchtli.  Here  is  clearly  Bacchus  by  his  name  of  Ofta&o$,4  who  was  called  THS 
=608,  which  was  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  the  desire  of  all  nations —  the  Om-mi-al  of 
Isaiah.  Here,  in  the  Teut,  we  have  not  only  the  0*o£  of  the  Greeks,  but  we  have  the  Teut-ates 
of  the  British  Druids,  and  the  Thoth  of  Egypt,  and  the  Buddha  of  India  under  his  name  Tat. 
But  it  is  expressly  said,  in  several  other  places,  that  the  God  was  called  Yao.  How  can  any  one 
doubt  that  here  are  the  remains  of  an  ancient  system  *  How  can  any  one  believe  that  the  Jews 
would  carry  all  these  recondite  matters  to  Mexico,  even  if  they  did  go  at  any  time,  and  that  they 
would  amalgamate  them  all  together  as  we  have  them  here  ? 

The  Mexican  history  gives  a  long  account  of  their  arrival  in  Mexico,  from  a  distant  country,  far 
to  the  West  The  stations  where  the  colony  rested,  from  time  to  time,  during  its  long  migration, 
which  took  many  years,  are  particularly  described,  and  it  is  said  that  ruins  of  the  towns  which 
they  occupied  are  to  be  seen  in  several  places  along  the  coast*  I  think  it  is  evident  that  this  mi- 
gration from  the  West  is  merely  a  mythos  j  the  circumstances  are  such  as  to  render  it  totally  in- 
credible. In  principle  it  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Jews,  but  accommodated  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  new  world. 

It  really  seems  impossible  to  read  Lord  Kingsborough's  notes,  in  pp,  241  et  seq*,  and  not  to 
see,  that  the  mythos  of  a  chosen  people,  and  a  God  conducting  them  after  long  migrations  to  a 
promised  land,  (attributed  by  the  Spanish  monks  to  the  contrivance  of  the  Devil,)  was  common  to 
Jews,  Christians,  and  Mexicans.  I  think  it  seems  clear,  from  p.  186,  that  Mexico  or  Mesi-co  was 
the  Hebrew  r?lPD  msih;  then  it  would  be  the  country  of  the  Messiah;  or  it  might  equally  be  the 


P.  82.  *  Pp,  153,  156,  158:  3  Ibid,  p.  410.  4  Ibid.  Vol.  VI.  p.  19?. 


24  MEXICAN   MYTHOS  THE   SAME   AS   THAT    OF   THE   OLD    WORLD. 

country  of  the  leader,  whom  we  call  Moses,  of  the  people  whom  we  have  found  in  Western  Syria, 
in  South  India,  and  Cashmere.  His  Lordship  shews,  that  the  word  Mesitli  or  Mexico  is  "  pre- 
"  cisely  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  word  rWQ  nmh  or  nttfB  mse  or  anointed,"  and  that  one  of  these 
Gods  should  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  the  other,  p.  82.  In  the  next  page  he  says,  "the  full  ac- 
"  complishment  of  the  prophecy  of  a  saviour  in  the  person  of  Quecalcoatle  has  been  acknowledged 
"  by  the  Jews  in  America."  He  says,  p.  100,  "The  temptation  of  Quecalcoatle,  the  fast  of  forty 
"  days  ordained  by  the  Mexican  ritual,  the  cup  with  which  he  was  presented  to  drink,  the  reed 
"  which  was  his  sign,  the  morning  star,  which  he  is  designated,  the  teepatt,  or  stone  which  was  laid 
"  on  his  altar,  and  called  teotecpatl,  or  divine  stone,  which  was  likewise  an  object  of  adoration ;  all 
"  these  circumstances,  connected  with  many  others  relating  to  Quecalcoatle,  which  are  here 
"  omitted,  are  very  curious  and  mysterious  !"  But  why  are  they  omitted  by  his  Lordship  ?  The 
pious  monks  accounted  for  all  these  things  by  the  agency  of  the  Devil,  and  burned  all  the  hiero- 
glyphic books  containing  them,  whenever  it  was  in  their  power. 

This  migration  of  the  Mexicans  from  the  West,1  is  evidently  exactly  similar  to  the  Exodus  of  the 
Israelites  from  Egypt,  The  going  out  with  great  noise  and  clamour  is  a  part  of  the  mythos. 
Nimrod  has  shewn  that  it  is  to  be  found  among  the  Greeks  in  their  Bacchic  festivals,  and  also 
among  the  Romans:  see  his  second  volume,  article  Populi  Fugia.2  The  meaning  of  the  mythos 
I  cannot  even  suspect,  and  the  nonsense  of  Nimrod  about  Babel  and  the  horrors  of  Gyneecocracy 
give  no  assistance.  But  the  fact  of  the  similarity  of  the  histories  proves  that  it  really  is  a  part  of 
the  mythos,  that  is,  that  a  Regifugia  and  Populifugia  is  a  part  of  the  mythos.3 

On  the  religion  of  the  Hindoos  the  Cambridge  Key  says,4  "  The  pristine  religion  of  the  Hindus 
was,  I  think,  that  of  the  most  pure  and  ancient  Catholic  faith,  and  the  religion  of  the  enlightened 
few  still  continues  such.  They  have  worshiped  a  saviour,  as  the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  for  more 
that  4800  years.  The  religion  of  their  forefathers  they  brought  with  them  from  the  old  world  and 
established  it  in  the  new  one.  They  believe  implicitly  in  a  Redeemer,  whom  they  consider  as  the 
spirit  that  moved  on  the  waters  at  the  creation,  the  God  that  existed  before  all  worlds."  We 
shall  find  this  the  Mexican  faith. 

The  God  who  led  the  Mexicans  in  their  migration,  was  called  Yao-teotle,  God  of  Armies—  Yao 
being  said  to  mean  army  or  victory- — the  very  meaning  given  to  it  by  the  Jews ;  and,  Sanscrit 
fccholars  tell  me,  also  by  the  Indians.5  Teo  is  said  to  be  ®so  or  Deo,  and  tie  a  mere  termination ; 
but,  as  I  have  stated  in  Vol.  L  p,  221,  the  TTL  is  T=300,  T=300,  L^50;  and  TT  is,  in  fact,  the 
Tat  or  Buddha  of  India.  Teotle  is  the  same  as  rbn  tlt>  and  means  650,  which,  as  emblem  of  the 
Trinitarian  God,  came  to  mean  three,,  I  believe  also  that  this  has  a  connexion,  in  some  way,  with 
the  "6n  tld9  probably  originally  nbn  tit  or  *7*6in  tulad,  the  male  organ  of  generation.  I  believe 
that  from  this  comes  our  word  Lad.  Teotl  is  the  Supreme  and  Invisible  Being. s  The  Tat  is  the 
name  of  the  Tartars,  who  are  as  often  called  Tatars,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  the  famous  Titans 
were  properly  Tat-aus.  Many  reasons  for  these  matteis  will  be  added  hereafter. 

Gen,  Vallancey  says,  the  earliest  Irish  history  begins  with  -Kartuelta,7  which  is  the  same  as  the 
Indo-Scythian  Cear-tiutli,  that  is,  Kaesar  or  Caesar,  grandson  of  Noah,  on  the  banks  of  the  Cas- 


i  Vide  Lord  Kingbbonrogh,  Vol  VI.  p.  237.  a  P  370. 

3  I  much  fear  I  shall  greatly  offend  the  \ery  learned  person  who  calls  himself  Nimrod,  of  whose  honour  and  sincerity 
I  have  no  doubt;  hut  I  am  quite  certain,  if  he  would  consult  a  friend  or  two,  he \\ould  find  that  he  gives  way  to  super- 
stition  in  a  manner  very  unwoithy  of  so  fine  a  scholar  and  so  learned  a  man.  His  work  is  called  Nimrod,  in  four 
volumes,  8vo ,  and  is  sold  by  Priestley,  London. 

*  Vol.  II.  p.  72-  fi  P.  244.  «  Miss  Williams'  Humboldt,  p.  83.  7  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  VI.  p.  21. 


BOOK    I.   CHAPTER   IV.   SECTION   5.  25 

pian,  300  years  after  the  flood.     Here  I  suspect  that  we  have  the  Caesar  of  Indo-Scythia,  or  of  the 
Caspian,  joined  to  the  Mexican  Tiutli  or  Teotli.1 

4.  In  p.  236,  Mr,  Humboldt  treats  of  a  nation  called  Xochimileks.    This  must  be  Xaca-melech, 
or,  I  should  rather  say,  (considering  all  the  other  circumstances  which  we  have  seen  relating  to 
the  Rajahpoutans  and  Royal  Shepherds,)  Royal  Saxons,  for  I  much  suspect  they  were  all  the 
same  people.      The  Marquess  Spineto,  in  his  Lectures,2    has  quoted  a  person  called  Carli  as 
having  deeply  studied  the  origin  of  nations  and  languages,  and  who,  he  says,  has  asserted  that  the 
Egyptians  peopled  America.     He  particularly  notices  a  word  as  being  held  sacred  among  the 
Egyptians  and  in  the  Pacific  ocean, — it  is  Tabou.    But  this  is  nothing  but  Bou-ta  read  anagram- 
matically,  or,  in  fact,  in  the  old  Hebrew  fashion.    The  High  Priesat  of  the  North  American  Indians 
was  called  Sachem.    I  think  we  have  here  both  the  Saga  and  the  Akme,3  and  also  the  Sciakam, 
which  we  have  before  noticed  in  Tibet.    The  dignity  of  sacrificer  was  supreme  and  hereditary, 
like  a  feudal  title.    His  title  was  Papa,  his  dress  scarlet,  with  fringes  as  a  border.4    This  exactly 
answers  to  the  Sagart  and  Rex  Sacrificulus  of  the  ancients.    The  fringes  of  the  Mexicans  were 
fixed  to  the  four  quarters  of  their  garments,  as  a  sacred  ordinance,  precisely  like  those  of  the 
Jews  ;5   and  it  is  only  fair  to  suppose,  as  they  were  similar  in  one  respect  they  should  be  so  in 
another,  and  have  been  descriptive  of  the  number  600. 

5.  Boturini  says,  tc  No  Pagan  nation  refers  primitive  events  to  fixed  dates  like  the  Indians,'* 
meaning  the  Americans.    *c  They  recount  to  us  the  history  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  of  the 
<e  deluge,  of  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  the  time  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  of  the  other  epochs  and 
"  ages  of  the  world,  of  their  ancestors'  long  travels  in  Asia,  with  the  years  precisely  distinguished 
"  by  their  corresponding  characters.    They  record,  in  the  year  of  Seven  Rabbits,  the  great  eclipse 
"  which  happened  at  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  our  Lord ;  and  the  first  Indians  who  were  converted 
"  to  Christianity,  who,  at  that  time,  were  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  their  own  chronology, 
"  and  applied  themselves  with  the  utmost  diligence  to  ours,  have  transmitted  to  us  the  informa- 
"  tion,  that  from  the  creation  of  the  world  to  the  happy  nativity  of  Christ,  five  thousand,  one 
"  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years  had  elapsed,  which  is  the  opinion  or  computation  of  the 
"LXX."6 

One  of  their  periods  is  4008  years  B.  C.,7  another  4801. 8  Their  fourth  age,  the  editor  says, 
according  to  the  Mexican  symbols,  lasted  5206  years,  and  the  early  Christian  converts  made  it 
out  5199  years.9  This  was  evidently  the  computation  of  5200  years  of  Eusebius.  The  period  of 
4801  is  the  sum  of  the  eight  ages  of  the  correct  Neros,  8x600=4800,  The  Mexicans  are  said  to 
be  great  astrologers. 

The  Mexicans  believed  that  the  millenium  would  commence  at  the  end  of  some  cycle  of  52 
years — 4x13—52;  and  they  concluded  each  of  these  periods  with  deep  lamentations  and  terrors, 
and  hailed  with  corresponding  joy  the  moment  when  the  new  cycle  had  commenced,  which  shewed 
that  they  had  a  new  52  years'  lease.  This  was  exactly  the  case  with  the  lamentations  for  the 
death  of  Osiris,  Adonis,  &c.,  and  his  resurrection  from  the  tomb.  The  new  cycle  having  com- 
menced, the  danger  had  past.  At  first,  I  doubt  not,  this  was  only  every  600  years  $  afterward, 
with  the  increasing  uncertainty  of  the  ends  of  those  periods,  and  also  with  the  increase  of  super- 
stition, the  festivals  of  Osiris,  &c,,  came,  for  the  sake  of  security,  to  be  celebrated  every  year. 

Lord  Eingsborough  says,  w  "  Christians  might  have  feared  the  return  of  every  period  of  fifty- 


1  See  Basnage,  for  a  kingdom  of  the  Jews  in  the  East  called  Cotar,  Caesar,  B.  vii.  ch.  L,  and  B*  viii. 

*  Pp.  W9,  200.  3  Pownal  on  Ant.  p.  J90.  *  Lord  Kmgsborough's  Mex  Vol.  VI.  p.  69. 

*  Ib.  p,  77.  c  Ib.  p.  I?6.  i  Ib.  p.  174,  8  Ib.  p,  175.          £>  Jb.  p  176.          l°  Ib.  p.  5,  note, 

VOL.   II, 


26  CHRONOLOGY  AND   CYCLIC   PERIODS. 

"  two  years  as  being  neatly  the  anniversary  of  the  age  which  Christ  had  attained  when  he  was  cru- 
"  cified,  and  of  the  great  eclipse  which  sacred  history  records,  and  which  (since  profane  history  is 
"  silent  respecting  it)  it  is  very  remarkable  how  the  Mexicans  should  have  become  acquainted  with/' 

The  first  pair  were  called  Huehue.1  Quecalcoatle  disappeared  at  the  end  of  fifty-two  years,  at 
the  great  festival  in  Cholula.2  Here  is  the  Aphanasia. 

Mr.  Humboldt  gives  nearly  the  same  account.  He  says,  "At  the  end  of  the  fifty-two  years 
"  they  had  a  grand  festival,  when  all  lights  were  extinguished,  and  after  crucifying  a  man,  they 
**  kindled  a  fire  by  the  friction  of  the  wood  of  the  Ivy  on  his  breast,  from  which  they  were  all  re- 
"  lighted.  It  was  their  belief  that  the  world  would  be  destroyed  at  the  end  of  one  of  these 
"  cycles,  and  as  soon  as  this  fire  was  kindled  and  the  critical  moment  past,  which  assured  them 
"  that  a  new  cycle  was  to  run,  they  indulged  in  the  greatest  joy.'5  He  shews  that  they  new- 
cleaned  and  furnished  all  their  houses  and  temples,  precisely  as  was  done  by  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, and,  he  might  have  added,  as  is  also  done  by  the  Romish  church  at  every  jubilee.3  He 
shews  that  the  Mexicans  had  convents  of  Monks  precisely  like  the  Tibetians  and  the  Romish 
church.  After  this,  Humboldt  states,  that  M.  La  Place,  from  a  careful  examination,  had  come  to 
the  conclusion,  that  the  Mexicans  knew  the  length  of  the  Tropical  Year  more  correctly  than 
Hipparchus,  and  almost  as  correctly  as  Almamon;4  and  he  shews,  from  various  astronomical 
circumstances,  that  they  must  have  had  a  close  connexion  with  Eastern  Asia  and  its  cycles. 

Humboldt  says,  "  This  predilection  for  periodical  series,  and  the  existence  of  a  cycle  of  sixty 
**  years,  appear  to  reveal  the  Tartarian  origin  of  the  nations  of  the  new  continent."5  He  then 
states,  that  the  cycle  of  sixty  years  was  divided  into  four  parts.  "  These  small  cycles  represented 
u  the  four  seasons  of  the  great  year.  Each  of  them  contained  185  moons,  which  corresponded 
"  with  fifteen  Chinese  and  Tibetian  years,  and  consequently  with  the  real  indictions  observed  in  the 
"time  of  Constantine,"6  Here  we  see  the  identity  accounted  for  of  the  chronological  periods 
stated  above  by  Lord  Kingsborough,  with  those  of  the  old  world,  as  corrected  by  the  two  Caesars 
with  the  assistance  of  the  Chaldoeans  of  the  East.  On  this  I  shall  have  something  very  curious  in 
a  future  book. 

Mr.  Niebuhr  says,  "  What  we  call  Roman  numerals  are  Etruscan,  and  frequently  seen  on  their 
"  monuments.  But  these  signs  are  of  the  hieroglyphic  kind,  and  belong  to  an  earlier  mode  of 
"  symbolical  writing,  in  use  before  the  introduction  of  alphabetical  characters. r  They  resemble 
a  the  Aztekan  in  this,  that  they  represent  objects  individually.  They  were  of  native  origin,  at  the 
"time  when  the  West,  with  all  its  primitive  peculiarities,  was  utterly  unknown  to  the  East,8 
"  at  the  same  period  when  the  Turdetani  framed  their  written  characters  and  literature/'0 

*c  Here  also  a  phenomenon  presents  itself,  which  fills  us  moderns  with  astonishment,  viz.  an  ex- 
"  ceedingly  accurate  measurement  of  time,  and  even  in  the  cyclical  year,  quite,  quite  in  the  spirit 
"  in  which  the  early  Mexican  legislators  conducted  the  chronology;  portions  of  time  measured  off 
"  from  periods  of  very  long  duration,  determined  with  astronottiical  precision,  and  without  regard 
"  to  the  lunar  changes.  Besides  these,  the  Etruscans  had  a  civil  lunar  year,  which  the  cyclical 
"  only  served  to  correct But  there  is  something  remarkable,  and  not  to  be  lightly  disre- 


i  Lord  Kingsborough's  Mex.  Vol.  VL  p.  198,  a  Ib  p.  199. 

3  Humboldt  Res  Cone  Mexico,  Ed  Miss  Williams,  Vol.  I.  pp.  226,  380,  382, 384.  4  Ibid  p.  392. 

-  Ib.  Vol.  II.  p.  128.  6  Ib.p,  133. 

7  How  extraordinary  that  this  author  should  stop  here  and  not  make  the  least  attempt  to  ascertain  what  this  symbo- 
lical writing  was !    It  will  be  my  object,  in  a  future  book,  to  supply  the  -deficiency ;  but  I  beg  my  reader  to  recollect 
the  admission  of  this  learned  man. 

8  What  a  mistake !  0  Strabo,  III.  Oap.  ii.  p.  371,  Ed.  Sylb. 


BOOK  I,    CHAPTER  VI.    SECTION  7 '•  27 

"  gardcd,  in  the  affinity  between  the  wisdom  of  the  ancient  West  and  the  science,  at  one  time 
"  perhaps  more  widely  diffused  over  that  hemisphere,  and  of  which  the  Mexicans  still  preserved  the 
"  hereditary,  though  probably  useless  possession^  at  the  time  wlien  their  country  was  destroyed. 
"  This  deserves  more  attentive  consideration,  since  the  discovery  of  an  analogy  between  the 
"  Basque  and  American  languages,  by  a  celebrated  scholar,  Professor  Vater."1  In  these  observa- 
tions we  surely  have  a  very  extraordinary  confirmation  of  my  theory.  If  the  Romans  calculated  by 
a  period  or  saeculum  of  120  years,  they  would  come  to  the  same  conclusions  as  if  they  took  the  60 
or  600,  and  in  this  we  see  why  the  Mexican  and  Roman  periods  agreed  in  the  time  of  Constantine 
and  Eusebius.  They  would  not  have  agreed  before  the  time  when  the  solstice  was  corrected  by 
Sosigenes  the  CHALDEAN.  They  would  have  varied  more  than  500  years.  This  we  shall  refer  to 
in  a  future  book,  when  it  will  be  understood,  and  something  exceedingly  striking  will  be 
unfolded. 

Humboldt  says,  the  Mexicans  hold  that,  before  the  flood,  which  took  place  4800  years  after 
the  creation2  of  the  world,  the  earth  was  inhabited  by  giants.  One  of  them  after  the  flood,  called 
Xelhua  or  the  architect,  built  an  immense  pyramidal  tower  which  was  to  reach  to  heaven — but 
the  Gods  offended  destroyed  it  with  lightning.  Here  is  a  complete  jumble  of  the  ancient  mytho- 
logy :  the  4800  are  the  eight  cycles  before  Christ.  The  architect  is  the  Megalistor  or  the  name 
of  God  made  into  the  giant,  and  is  X-al-hua,  the  self-existent  X.  The  tower  is  the  exact  model 
of  the  tower  of  Babel,  as  given  in  our  old  histories.  After  its  destruction  it  was  dedicated  to 
Quetzalcoatl,  the  God  of  the  Air.  This  is  Saca,  or  Indra,  whom  we  found  crucified  in  Nepaul. 
(See  Vol.  I.  p.  230.)  3  The  Mexicans  chaunted  the  word  Hululaez,  which  belonged  to  no  Mexican 
dialect,  to  the  honour  of  their  Gods.4  This  is  evidently  the  Allelujah  of  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews, 
and  the  Ullaloo  of  the  Irish. 5 

6.  It  is  said  that  after  the  deluge  sacrificing  commenced.  The  person  who  answers  to  Noah 
entered  an  Ark  with  six  others,  and  that  soon  after  the  deluge  his  descendants  built  the  tower  of 
Tulan  Cholnla,  partly  to  see  what  was  going  on  in  heaven,  and  partly  for  fear  of  another  deluge, 
but  it  was  destroyed  by  thunder  and  lightning.  The  story  of  sending  birds  out  of  the  ark,  the 
confusion  and  dispersion  of  tribes,  is  the  same  in  general  character  with  that  of  the  Bible.  His 
Lordship  says,  "  In  attempting  to  explain  how  the  Indians  could  have  become  acquainted  with 
"  events  of  such  remote  antiquity,  coeval  with  the  foundation  of  the  earliest  monarchies,  it  would 
"  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  their  annals  and  native  traditions  extended  backwards  to  a  period 
"  unknown  to  Egyptian,  Persian,  Greek,  or  Sanscrit  history."6  Absurd  as  it  may  be  to  suppose 
this,  their  hieroglyphic  annals  evidently  do  thus  extend  backwards. 

His  Lordship  says, 7  "  The  difficulty  of  comprehending  the  plan  of  the  tower  of  Belus,  given 
"  by  Herodotus,  vanishes  on  inspecting  the  plans  of  the  Mexican  temples.  The  turrets  in  the 
"  great  temple,  described  in  p.  380,  were  360  in  number."  Up  to  the  temple  Cholula  were 
dento  y  veinte  gt*ada$.  The  brick  base  of  the  tower  of  Chululan,  which  remains,  and  was  built 


1  Niebuhr,  Hist.  Rome,  Vol.  I  p.  92,  Ed.  Walter. 

*  I  think  when  my  reader  lias  seen  a  few  of  the  following"  pages  he  will  be  convinced  that  there  must  here  be  a 
mistake  of  the  translator,  and  that  the  words  after  the  creation  of  the  world  ought  to  be  before  the  Christian  &ra*    Hie 
space,  4800  is  about  the  time  of  the  eight  cycles  from  the  entrance  of  the  Sun  into  Taurus,  and  when  (as  I  shall  shew 
in  a  future  book)  a  flood  probably  took  place. 

3  Williams,  Vol.  I.  p.  96  *  Ibid 

*  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Ullaloo  of  the  Irish,  with  which  they  wake  their  dead  friends,  was  originally  an  invocation 
to  the  Deity  to  be  merciful  to  their  souls* 

5  Vol.  VI.  p.  117.  7  Ib.  p.  279. 


28  TOWERS  OP  MEXICO  AND   BABEL. 

in  order  to  escape  another  flood  if  it  should  come,  is  eighteen  hundred  feet  in  circumference.  It 
as  said  to  have  been  destroyed  by  a  stone  from  heaven.1  It  is  pyramidal.  Humbolt  says  it  is 
hollow.2  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  word  Choi  has  been  XL=650— a  monogram,  which  it  may 
be  remembered  is  found  in  the  oldest  catacombs  at  Rome. 

Teocalli  is  the  name  of  the  temple  of  Cholula ;  this  is  said  to  be  the  house  of  Teocalli.  This 
is  evidently  tea  or  God  Call.  House  of  God  is  precisely  the  Hebrew  style. 

The  word  Cholula  is  thought  by  Lord  Kingsborough  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  word  Jeru-salem. 
He  thinks  the  same  of  a  place  called  Churula;3  but  I  suspect  that  they  were  identical.  At 
Cholula  is  the  very  large  temple,  with  the  very  celebrated  pyramid,  which  is  said  to  be  a  very 
close  imitation  of  the  temple  of  Belus  or  tower  of  Babel.  4  A  room  in  one  of  the  pyramids  of 
Cholula  had  its  ceiling  formed  like  the  temple  at  Komilmar,  of  over-hanging  stones. 5 

In  Volume  XXL  6  of  the  Classical  Journal  will  be  found  some  interesting  remarks  of  Mr. 
Faber's  on  the  close  similarity  between  the  pyramid  on  the  mountain  Cholula  of  the  Mexicans,  and 
the  tower  of  Belus.  That  one  is  a  copy  of  the  other,  or  that  they  are  both  taken  from  some 
common  mythos,  cannot  possibly  be  doubted.  This  being  premised,  I  would  ask  my  reader 
whether  he  can  doubt  a  moment,  that  the  well-known  deity  Omorca  of  the  Chaldaeans7  is  the 
Hom-eyo-ca  of  the  Mexicans  ?  Thus  we  have  not  only  the  mythos  of  the  Greeks  in  Bacchus, 
of  Christianity,  of  Judaism,  of  Tartary,  and  of  North  and  South  India  in  Mexico,  but  we  have 
the  very  oldest  mythos  of  Babylon.  How  came  this  mythos  of  Babylon  in  Mexico  ?  Did  it  go 
by  China  ?  I  think  my  reader,  when  he  considers  all  these  circumstances,  must  see  that  my 
theory  of  one  universal  empire  and  mythos  will  explain  all  the  difficulties,  and  that  it  alone  can 
explain  them, 

Mr.  Humboldt,  after  shewing  that  the  tower  at  Cholula  was  in  every  respect  a  dose  imitation  of 
that  described  by  Diodorus  and  Herodotus  at  Babylon,  both  in  its  form  and  in  the  astronomical 
uses  to  which  it  was  applied,  states,  as  if  it  was  not  doubted,  but  a  settled  fact,  that  it  was  built 
after  the  time  of  Mohamed.8  At  this  time  the  tower  of  Belus  had  for  many  centuries  been  in 
ruins,  and  its  country  a  perfect  desert.  This  at  once  shews  that  no  dependence  can  be  placed  in 
Mr,  Humboldt' s  speculation  on  this  subject,— for  surely  no  one  will  credit  the  recent  date  of  this 
work,  supposing  even  that  it  were  built  by  emigrants  from  Egypt  or  from  Chinese  Tartary.  In 
that  age,  after  the  time  of  Mohamed,  what  should  induce  either  Jews  or  Christians  to  expend  an 
immense  sum  in  money  or  labour  to  build  a  tower  of  Babel,  in  Mexico  or  any  where  else  ?  After 
the  description  of  the  Mexican  pyramidal  towers,  Mr,  Humboldt  goes  on  to  state,  that  there 
are  similar  pyramidal  towers  in  Virginia  and  Canada,  containing  galleries  lined  with  stone.  He 
states  the  temple  of  Xochicalco  accurately  to  face  the  four  cardinal  points, 10  to  be  built  of  stone 
beautifully  wrought,  but  without  cement— each  stone  in  form  of  a  parallelepiped. 

The  Mexicans*  large  temple,  placed  on  a  conical  hill,  called  Xochicalco,  meant,  as  they  say, 
house  ofjftowers.  This  is  Xaca  and  Calx,  Calyx,  which  meant  Rose.  u  The  hill  was  excavated 
into  large  caves,12  wonderful  to  behold,  when  it  is  considered  (as  it  is  there  observed),  that  the 
Mexicans  had  no  iron.  An  observation  is  made  by  M.  Dupaix,  that  the  Mexicans  are  now  quite 
ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  their  proper  names.13  In  p.  71 3  *t  appears  that  the  temple  at  Mexico 


I  Vol.  VI.  p.  196.  *  Ib.  p.  174,    This  Tower  is  in  Plate  XVJ.  See  ib.  p.  192. 

3  P.  34.  *  Vide  Class,  Journal,  Vol.  XXI.  p.  10.  *  Williams's  Humboldt,  p.  91. 

«  Pp.  10,  11.  7  Named  in  Class.  Jour.  Vol.  XX.  p   186.  8  Ib.  p  100. 

9  Ib.  102.  10  ib,  p.  IIO> 

II  Lord  Kingsborough's  Mex.  Ant.  p.  430.  «  Ib.  p.  431.  l3  Jb.  p,  432 


BOOK  I.    CHAPTER  IV.    SECTION  7»  29 

is,  in  substance  and  fact,  called  the  temple  of  Cihnathe,  C  being  pronounced  like  S,  and  thus 
making  the  temple  of  Sin  or  Sion,  which  will  be  explained  in  the  book  on  letters.  Lord  Kings- 
borough  calls  it  Sinai  or  Sina. 

I  feel  little  doubt  that  one  of  the  first  names  of  God,  in  the  first  written  language,  for  reasons 
which  I  shall  give  when  I  explain  the  Origin  of  Letters,  in  all  nations,  languages,  and  times, 
would  be  n  di,  divus,  with  its  variety  of  forms  :  the  next,  perhaps,  would  be  descriptive  of  360. 
This  might  be  described  in  various  ways,  as  TLI— T=300  Ln50  I— 10— 360.  The  meaning  of 
these  three  numbers  would  be  the  glorious  orb  we  daily  behold,  the  Sun  and  God.  For  reasons 
which  I  shall  assign,  I  suppose  Di  was  the  first  and  the  prevailing  name  of  God  during  many 
generations.  Afterward,  when  astronomy  so  much  improved  that  the  knowledge  of  the  Neros  of 
650  was  acquired,  the  name  TTL=650  was  adopted  as  his  name,  and  we  have  it  in  Mexico,  (where 
fgures  were  known,  but  not  syllabic  letters^}  in  the  name  of  the  Deity  Teotk.  The  periods  shew 
how  far,  at  the  time  in  which  they  branched  off  from  Asia,  the  knowledge  of  the  system  had 
extended.  Their  period  from  the  creation  to  Christ,  of  5200  years,  embraces  the  eight  ages  of 
their  cycle :  their  TTL,  TKOTLE=650  X  8=5200,  corresponding  with  the  period  of  Eusebius.  In 
India,  the  name  360  fell  into  disuse  and  was  lost,  and  was  probably  superseded  by  the  words 
Titlu~666,  TTL=650+IU  or  t  11-16—666,  and,  at  last,  by  the  number  now  used,  TT-600.  I 
know  not  how  I  could  have  invented  any  thing  more  in  accordance  with  my  theory  than  that  this 
Mexican  God  should  have  this  peculiar,  appropriate  name,  had  I  set  my  wits  to  work  for  the 
purpose  of  invention.  "  Teotl  signifies,  in  the  Mexican  language,  both  the  Sun  and  an  Age  3  and 
"  the  image  of  the  sun,  surrounded  with  rays,  was  the  symbol  of  the  latter." 1 

Mr.  Fred.  Schlegel  has  observed,2  that  the  word  atl  or  atel  is  found  in  the  languages  of  the 
East  of  Europe ;  that  it  means  water,  and  that  its  symbol  has  found  its  way  into  the  Greek 
alphabet  in  the  letter  Mem,  in  the  undulating  shape  by  which  water  is  meant — M  ;  that  it  is  also 
in  the  Phoenician  and  most  western  nations.  It  is  in  the  Estoteland  of  Greenland,  which  is,  I 
suspect,  di-ania-estotel ;  and  I  also  suspect  that  it  is  the  symbol  of  the  centre  letter  and  of  water, 
because  it  is  the  symbol  of  fluid  of  any  kind.  I  think  this  leads  to  the  meaning  of  our  word 
Land,  L'-ania-di — the  holy  country. 

7  Almost  all  persons  who  have  written  respecting  the  Mexicans,  have  observed  the  similarity 
of  their  language  to  that  of  the  Hebrews.  This  and  many  other  strange  things  the  monks  admit 
most  unwillingly,  and  attribute  to  the  devil.  Las  Casas  said  that  the  language  of  Saint  Domingo 
was  u  corrupt  Hebrew/'3  The  Caribbees  have  the  word  Neketali,  meaning  dead;  in  Hebrew 
5?®p  qtl:  Hilaali,  he  is  dead;  in  Hebrew  ^n  hit:  Kaniche,  a  cane ;  (sugar  j)  in  Hebrew  rnp  qne : 
JEneka,  a  cottar;  in  Hebrew  pjy  onk.* 

Las  Casas  wrote  an  account  of  the  Mexicans,  in  which  (we  are  told)  he  states  his  belief  that 
they  are  descended  from  the  Jews,5  This  account,  by  his  desire,  was  never  published.  But  why 
should  he  object  to  its  being  known  that  the  Mexicans  descended  from  the  Jews  ?  The  reason  is 
very  evident :  it  was  because  he  saw  it  was  ridiculous,  and  he  did  not  believe  it  himself*  This 
book  is  in  the  Academy  of  History  at  Madrid.  It  was  examined  a  few  years  ago  by  the  Govern- 
ment, but  it  was  not  thought  proper  to  publish  it. 6 

Lord  Kingsborough  gives  the  following  passage:  7  "Las Casas'  persuasion  that  the  Indians  were 
"  descended  from  the  Jews  is  elsewhere  mentioned  :  but  as  the  words,  *  Loquela  tua  manifestum 


»  Mex.  Ant,  Vol.  VI.  p.  157.  *  Notes  on  Miss  Williams's  Humboldt,  Vol.  II.  p.  222, 

»  Mex.  Ant  Vol.  VI.  p.  283.  4  Anc  Univ.  Hist.  Vol  XX.  p.  161. 

*  Mex.  Ant  Vol.  VI.  p  7.  6  Ibid.  7  Ib.  p.  7,  note. 


30  CROSS  AND   CRUCIFIXES. 

"  te  facit,  were  discovered,  with  some  other  reasons  tending  toxvards  the  same  conclusion,  by 
"  Torquemada,  in  some  private  papers  containing  the  will  of  Las  Casas,  at  the  same  time  that 
"  great  weight  must  be  attached  to  so  solemnly  recorded  an  opinion,  it  cannot  be  said  that  that 
"  learned  prelate  was  guilty  of  any  indiscretion  in  promulgating  it :  but  the  contrary  is  proved,  by 
"  the  proviso  which  he  made  respecting  the  publication  of  his  history,— that  it  should  not  be 
"  printed  till  fifty  years  after  his  death,  and  then  only  if  it  appeared  good  to  the  superior  of  his 
"  order,  and  for  the  benefit  of  religion  $  but  that  in  the  intermediate  time  no  layman  or  young 
"  ecclesiastic  was  to  be  permitted  to  read  it.  The  work  has  never  been  published :  and  Don 
"  Martin  Fernandez  de  Navarrete  says,  that  when  it  was  referred  some  years  ago  to  the  Academy 
"  of  History  at  Madrid,  to  take  their  decision  respecting  its  publication,  they  did  riot  think  it 
"  convenient."  I  now  learn  that  permission  has  been  given  to  Lord  Kingsborough  to  copy  it. 
The  secreting  practice  is  found  to  answer  no  longer.  The  old  proverb  applies,  "  Omne  ignotum 
"  pro  magnifico  est."  I  shall  be  surprised  if  any  thing  important  be  found  in  it,  as  much  as  I 
should  have  been  to  have  heard,  that  the  French  found  many  diamonds  at  Loretto  when  they  got 
there,  or  secret  learning  in  the  Vatican  Library  when  they  got  to  Rome. 

David  Malcolme,  in  his  Essay  on  Ant,  of  Brit.,  says,  "  Take  it  in  the  sense  of  Wytfleet,  thus, 
u  p.  m.  12,  which  in  substance  amounts  to  this,  &c.,  when  the  Spaniards  were  in  the  magna 
"  insula  Indice  Hayti :  When  the  bell  rung  for  evening  prayers,  the  Spaniards,  according  to 
f"  custom,  bowed  their  knees,  and  signed  themselves  with  the  cross.  The  Indians  did  imitate 
"  them  with  great  reverence,  falling  down  on  their  knees,  and  joining  their  hands  together,  (rather, 
"  as  I  think,  for  imitation  than  for  any  other  reason,)  though  there  are  several  who  think,  that 
"  the  Indians  had  the  cross  in  veneration  long  before  the  arrival  of  Columbus.  Gomara,  Book  iii. 
"  Chap*  xxxii.  tells,  That  St,  Andrew's  Cross*  which  is  the  same  with  that  of  Burgundy,  was  in 
«<  very  great  veneration  among  the  Cumans,  and  that  they  fortified  themselves  with  the  crosb 
"  against  the  incursions  of  evil  spirits,  and  were  in  use  to  put  them  upon  new-born  infants  $  which 
u  thing  very  justly  deserves  admiration.  Neither  can  it  be  conceived  how  such  a  rite  should 
"  prevail  among  savages,  unless  they  have  learned  this  adoration  of  the  cross  from  mariners  or 
"  strangers,  who,  being  carried  thither  by  the  violence  of  tempests,  have  died  or  been  buried  there, 
"  vthich  without  all  doubt  would  have  also  happened  to  that  Andalusian  pilot  who  died  in  the 
"  house  of  Columbus,  unless  he  had  been  very  skilful  in  sea  affairs,  arid  feo  had  observed  his 
"  course,  when  he  was  hurried  away  with  the  force  of  the  storms :  it  is  very  credible  that  many 
"  of  those  who  are  generally  reckoned  to  have  been  foundered  at  sea,  did  really  meet  with  accidents* 
"  of  this  kind.  But  the  Accusamilenses  bring  another  reason  of  adoring  the  cross,  and  which 
"  &eems  nearer  truth,  to  wit,  That  they  had  received  by  tradition  from  their  forefathers,  that 
"  formerly  a  man  more  glorious  than  the  sun  had  passed  through  these  countries  and  suffered  on 
"  a  cross/'  Here  we  have  the  mythos  clear  enough  in  Hispaniola. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Hyde,  speaking  of  the  prie&ts  of  Peru,  takes  occasion  to  say,  **  Nam  populi 
*6  simplicitas  et  sacerdotum  astutia  omni  sevo  omnique  regions  semper  notabilis." *  No  wonder 
the  University  of  Oxford  refused  to  print  any  more  of  his  manuscripts.  He  was  speaking  of  a 
virgin  of  Peru,  who  was  pregnant  by  the  sun.  The  Reverend  Doctors  of  Oxford  did  right  not 
to  publish  his  works  while  he  lived,  and  to  destroy  his  manuscripts  when  he  died.2  He  ought  to 
have  been  burnt  himself — Omnique  regions,  indeed  ! ! ! 

Acosta  says,  that  the  Americans  adored  the  sea,  under  the  name  Mammacocha.  I  believe  this 
was  the  Marine  Venus  Mamma  3KD1D  cochab* 3 


Cap,  iv.  p  123  *  Vide  Toland's  Nazarenus,  Chap,  iv.,  and  Bibliog.  Bnt.  3  Lord  Herbert,  p.  149. 


BOOK  I.     CHAPTER  IV.    SECTION  9.  31 

The  Mexicans  baptized  their  children,  and  the  water  which  they  used  they  called  the  water  of 
regeneration. l 

The  Mexican  king  danced  before  the  God,  and  was  consecrated  and  anointed  by  the  high  priest 
with  holy  unction.  On  one  day  of  the  year  all  the  fires  were  put  out,  and  lighted  again  from  one 
sacred  fire  in  the  temple  ;a  — the  practice  of  the  Druids,  Lord  Kingsborough 3  shews,  that  the 
Messiah  of  the  Jews  is  foretold  to  have  an  ugly  or  a  marred  countenance,  and  that  the  Mexican 
Quecalcoatle  is  said  to  have  had  the  same.  At  the  end  of  October  they  had  a  festival  exactly 
answering  to  our  All  Saints  and  All  Souls.*  They  call  it  the  festival  of  advocates,  because  each 
human  being  had  an  advocate  to  plead  for  him.  Thus  we  have  this  festival  throughout  modern 
Europe,  in  Tibet,  and  in  the  ancient  festival  of  the  Druids'  Saman  in  Ireland,  and  in  Mexico. 
There  is  the  story  of  the  rebellious  angels  and  the  war  in  heaven.  5  This  is  not  from  our  Pen- 
tateuch. 

9.  The  Peruvians  had  a  festival  called  the  festival  of  Capacreyme,  in  the  first  month  of  their 
year,  called  Rayme. a  Acosta  supposes  this  was  contrived  ly  the  Devil  in  imitation  of  the  Passover. 
It  may  be  observed,  that  all  the  acts  of  worship  are  directed  avowedly  to  the  Sun.  The 
Mexicans  sacrificed  human  victims,  which  Lord  Kingsborough  7  has  shewn  was  practised  by  the* 
Jews,  who  were,  according  to  his  Lordship's  account,  horrible  cannibals. 

Georgius  shews  that  the  God  Xaca  was  constantly  called  Cio; — this  was  the  Xiuh-tecutli  or 
God  of  Fire,  or  God  of  Years,  or  the  Everlasting  One,  of  the  Mexicans.8  Volney0  says,  the 
Teleuteans  are  a  Tartar  nation. 

Buddha  was  Hermes,  and  Hermes  was  Mercury,  and  Mercury  was  the  God  of  Merchants,  and 
Buddha  was  Xaca,  and  Saca  and  the  Mexican  God  of  Merchants  was  Yaca-tecutli. 

In  the  history  of  the  Aztecks  of  Mexico,  we  find  much  respecting  one  Coxcox  saved  on  a  raft, 
in  a  great  flood,  Now  when  I  consider  that  the  Mexicans  are  so  closely  connected  with  North 
India,  and  that  their  accounts  are  all  preserved  by  a  mixture  of  hieroglyphics  and  unwritten 
tradition,  I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  this  Coxcox  ought  to  be  Sasax  or  Saxas, 

Nagualism  is  a  doctrine  known  in  America,  (Naga  is  are  nhs9  softened  or  corrupted,  and  the 
Hag  of  England,)  where  the  serpent  is  called  Culebra  ;  this  is  Colubra ;  and  the  followers  of  it 
are  called  Chivim  ;  these  are  the  Evites,  or  Hivites,  or  Ophites,  Eve  is  K>irr  hvia  or  KVH  Aiwa.10 

The  Mexicans  had  a  forty-days'  fast  in  memory  of  one  of  their  sacred  persons  who  was  tempted 
forty  days  on  a  mountain.  He  drinks  through  a  reed.  He  is  called  the  Morning  Star,  &c,,  &c. 
This  must  be  the  same  person  noticed  before  (p,  24)  to  have  had  a  reed  for  an  emblem.  As 
Lord  Kingsborough  says,  "  These  are  things  which  are  very  curious  and  mysterious."  u 

The  inhabitants  of  Florida  chaunt  the  word  Hosanna  in  their  religious  service,  and  their  priests 
were  named  Jouanas* 12 

Sina  is  the  ancient  name  of  China.  I  suspect  Sina,  and  Sian  or  Siam,  are  the  same  word.  The 
God  of  Hayti  was  called  Jocanna,  the  c  is  evidently  instead  of  the  aspirate  in  Johanna, 13 

One  of  the  temples  has  the  name  of  Qihnateocalli — that  is,  I  suppose,  temple  of  Cali,  the  God 
of  Sina  or  Sian.14 

Lord  Kingsborough  says,  15the  Mexicans  honour  the  cross.    "They  knew  them  (the  Chiribians, 


1  Mcx,Ant,  Vol.  VI.  p.  114.                     *  Ib.  p.  144.  3  Ib.  p.  167,  note.                     *  Ib  p.  101. 

*  Ib,  p.  401.                       6  Ib,  p.  305,  7  Ib.  p.  328.                             8  Ib.  p.  392, 
»  Ruins,  Notes,  p.  198,  and  Asiat,  Res.  Vol.  III.  p.  358.                                *  See  Vol.  I.  p.  523, 

"  Mex.  Ant,  Vol  VI.  p.  100.              IS  Ib.  p.  71.  '3  Ib.  p.  98.             l*  Ib.  p,  71.            "  H>.  p,  4, 


32  IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION—  FBMAJLE  PILGRIMAGE. 

"  or  Chiribichenses,  which  name  differs  from  that  of  Chibirias,  the  mother  of  Bacab,)  honour  the 
"  cross.9' 

The  Incas  had  a  cross  of  very  fine  marble,  or  beautiful  jasper,  highly  polished,  of  one  piece, 
three-fourths  of  an  ell  in  length,  and  three  fingers  in  width  and  thickness.  It  was  kept  in  a 
sacred  chamber  of  a  palace,  and  held  in  great  veneration.  The  Spaniards  enriched  this  cross 
with  gold  and  jewels,  and  placed  it  in  the  cathedral  of  Cusco. l  Mexican  temples  are  in  the  form 
of  a  cross,  and  face  the  four  cardinal  points. 

Quecalcoatle  is  represented  in  the  paintings  of  the   Codex  Borgianus  nailed  to  the  cross.2 
Sometimes  even  the  two  thieves  are  there  crucified  with  him. 3 

In  Vol.  II.  plate  75,  the  God  is  crucified  in  the  Heavens,  in  a  circle  of  nineteen  figures,  the 
number  of  the  Metonic  cycle.  A  serpent  is  depriving  him  of  the  organs  of  generation.  In  the 
Codex  Borgianus,  (pp.  4,  72?  73,  75,)  the  Mexican  God  is  represented  crucified  and  nailed  to 
the  cross,  and  in  another  place  hanging  to  it,  with  a  cross  in  his  hands.  And  in  one  instance, 
where  the  figure  is  not  merely  outlined,  the  cross  is  red,  the  clothes  are  coloured,  and  the  face 
and  hands  quite  black.  If  this  was  the  Christianity  of  the  German  Nestorius,  how  came  he  to 
teach  that  the  crucified  Saviour  was  black  ?  The  name  of  the  God  who  was  crucified  was  Queca- 
al-coatle.  I  suspect  this  was  Saca,  or  Xaca,  or  Kaca— the  Coatle  (or  God).4  The  mother  of 
Quecalcoatle  is  called  Sochi-quetzal ;  may  this  be  mother  of  Xaca  1 5  Sochi,  or  Suchi-quecal  is 
both  male  an&  female. 6 

In  pp.  71j  73,  of  the  Codex  Borgianus,  the  burial,  descent  into  hell,  and  the  resurrection,  are 
represented. 7 

In  one  of  the  plates  the  God  is  crucified  on  a  mountain.    I  suspect  that  this  is  Prometheus. 
10.  The  Immaculate  Conception  is  described. 8     This  is  also  described  in  Torquemada's  Indian 
Monarchy.    The  Mexican  word  Dios  meant  God,  and  he  was  called  ineffable. 9 

The  Immaculate  Conception  is  described  in  the  Codex  Vaticanus. 10  The  Virgin  Chimalman, 
also  called  Sochiquetzal  or  Suchiquecal, n  was  the  mother  of  Quecalcoatle.  Sochiquetzal  means 
the  lifting  up  of  Eases. 

Eve  is  called  Ysnextli,  and  it  is  said  she  sinned  by  plucking  roses.  But  in  another  place  these 
roses  are  called  Fmta  del  Arbor. 12  The  Mexicans  called  the  Father  Yzona,  the  Son  Bacab,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  Echvah,  This,  they  say,  they  received  from  their  ancestors, 13  The  Lakchmi 
of  India  is  called  CkrL  (Lakchmi  is  I/Achm;  Chri  is  Xg>j£.)  These  are  the  same  as  the 
Mexican  Centeotl,  i.  e.  Cm-teotl  3 14  and  Centeotl,  is  Can  or  Cun-teotl,— •  the  Cunti,  the  name  of 
the  female  generative  principle  in  India. 

The  Mexican  Eve  is  called  Suchiquecal,  A  messenger  from  heaven  announced  to  her  that  she 
should  bear  a  son,  who  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head.  He  presents  her  with  a  rose.  This 
was  the  commencement  of  an  Age,  which  was  called  the  Age  of  Roses.  In  India  this  is  called 
the  Age  of  the  Lotus,  the  water  rose.  Upon  this  it  may  be  observed,  that  if  this  had  been  a 

1  Vega,  Book  ii,  Chap.  iii.  *  Mex.  Ant.  Vol.  VI.  p.  166.  3  Ibid.  *  Ib.  p.  1?3. 

*  Ib.  p.  175.  6  Ib.  p.  176.  »  Ib.  VI.  p.  166.  8  Ib.  p.  65. 

9  Ib.  p.  68.  »°  Ib.  pp.  I?5,  176. 

'i  This  is  really  our  Sukey,  and  the  Gieek  tf/y^.    It  comes  from  the  language  of  the  Tartars,  Tatars,  the  Sacse  or 
Saxons,  the  language  of  Tanga-tanga  or  Tangut. 

«  Mex.  Ant.  Vol.  VI.  p.  120.  »3  Ib.  p.  165.  u  Humboldt,  Ed,  Miss  Williams,  Vol.  L  p  221, 

N.  B.  This  uas  the  last  sheet  revised  by  the  Author— a  short  time  before  he  died. 


BOOK  I.     CHAPTER  IV.     SECTION  11.  33 

Papist  forgery,  the  woman  and  not  the  seed  of  the  woman  would  have  bruised  the  head.  It  may 
also  be  observed,  that  if  this  had  come  from  the  Western  part  of  the  old  world,  since  the  time 
of  Constantine,  it  would  certainly  have  had  the  woman  and  not  the  seed  of  the  woman.  All 
this  history  the  Monkish  writer  is  perfectly  certain  is  the  invention  of  the  Devil. l  Torque- 
mada's  Indian  History  was  mutilated  at  Madrid  before  it  was  published. 2  Suchiquecal  is  called 
the  Queen  of  Heaven.  She  conceived  a  son,  without  connexion  with  man,  who  is  the  God  of  Air. 
This  is  the  immaculate  conception,  and  the  God  Indra,  whom  we  found  crucified  and  raised  from 
the  dead  in  Nepaul.  The  Mohamedans  have  a  tradition  that  Christ  was  conceived  by  the  smelling 
of  a  rose.  3  The  temples  of  Quetzalcoatle  were  round.  He  was  the  inventor  of  temples  in  this 
form. 

In  the  thirty-sixth  chapter  of  Marco  Paulo,  an  account  is  given  of  the  sacrifice,  in  the  province 
of  Tanguth,  a  little  North  of  Nepaul,  of  a  Rani  of  a  year  old,  which  is  said  to  be  offered  as  a 
ransom  for  the  Child.  The  same  is  practised  among  the  Chinese.  *  Torquemeda  says, 5  "  Two 
"  things  are  very  remarkable :  the  first  is,  that  the  parents  of  the  children  should  have  sold  them, 
"  and  given  them  voluntarily  for  sacrifice  :  the  second,  that  the  sale  itself  should  have  taken  place 
6(  on  the  second  day  of  this  month,  (February,)  at  the  very  time  that  we,  who  are  Christians, 
"  celebrate  the  festival  of  the  presentation  of  the  Virgin  without  spot,  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem, 
"  holding  in  her  arms  her  most  blessed  child,  the  Son  of  God,  whose  life  was  sold  for  the  sin  of 
"  the  fiist  woman  who  existed  in  the  world,  carrying  him  to  present  and  make  an  offering  of  him, 
"  manifesting,  as  it  were  to  God,  the  sacrifice  which  was  afterwards  to  be  accomplished  on  the 
"  tree  of  the  cross."  6 

11.  Mr.  Humboldt  has  written  much  respecting  the  Americans.  It  is  a  remarkable  circum- 
stance that  it  should  never  have  occurred  to  him,  that  the  ignorance  in  the  South  Americans  of 
the  use  of  letters  and  iron,  were  decisive  circumstantial  proofs  of  their  very  great  antiquity,  and 
their  very  early  separation  from  the  stock  of  the  old  world ;  but  this  great  antiquity  he  considers 
proved  from  a  variety  of  other  circumstances.  He  says,  "  It  cannot  be  doubted,  that  the  greater 
"  part  of  the  nations  of  America  belong  to  a  race  of  men,  who,  isolated  ever  since  the  infancy  of 
"  the  world  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  exhibit  in  the  nature  and  diversity  of  language,  in  their 
"  features  and  the  conformation  of  their  skull,  incontestable  proofs  of  an  early  and  complete  sepa- 
"  ration/*  7  Except  in  the  article  language  he  is  quite  right. 

Malcolme  shews  that  Tautah  in  the  American  language  means  Father  5  in  Irish,  Dad  \  Welsh, 
Tad  or  Taduys  $  Armoric,  Tat;  Cornish,  Tad  and  Tas  5  Scotch,  Dads  St.  Kelda,  Tat;  and  in 
Guatimala,  Tat  5  in  Old  Italy,  Tata ;  in  Egypt,  Dade  5  in  Greek,  Tetta  \  in  Old  English,  Daddy. 8 
The  American  Taut-ah  is  the  Indian  Tat. 

After  shewing  at  great  length  that  the  Mexicans  must  have  had  their  mythology  from  Asia, 
East  of  the  Indus,  Mr.  Humboldt 9  observes,  that  he  finds  among  them  neither  the  Linga  nor  any 
of  those  figures  with  several  heads  and  hands  which  characterize  the  paintings  and  figures  of  the 
Hindoos.  But  he  distinctly  admits  that  he  finds  the  doctrine  of  repeated  regenerations  in  cycles, 

'  Ant  of  Mex,  Vol.  VI,  p.  177-  9  lb.  p.  179. 

3  Ib.  p.  176.  This  was  the  water  rose  or  Lotus.  He  was  the  Hose  of  Sharon,  that  is,  he  was  the  Rose  of  Ishuren, 
or  the  God  of  the  country  where  the  language  is  called  that  of  Posh  or  Push— the  flower, 

*  Ib.  note,  Marsden.  s  Monarquia  Indiana,  Vol.  II.  p,  251. 

6  Ant  of  Mex.  Vol.  VI,  p.  201, 

7  Researches  in  S.  America,  by  Humboldt,  Vol.  I.  pp.  249,  250,  ed.  Miss  Williams. 

a  Dr.  Malcolme's  Letters.  *  Humboldt's  Res.  VoL  II.  p.  36,  ed.  Miss  Williams. 

VOL.  II. 


34  THE  ASS   AND   HORSE.      RACES   OF   MEN. — CHINA.      TIBET.      SPANISH   POLICY. 

Now  this  again  seems  to  confirm  my  hypothesis,  that  they  migrated  from  the  old  world  so  early 
as  to  be  before  these  corruptions^  early  as  the  Linga  was.  And  it  has  induced  me  to  review  the 
early  history  of  Buddhism,  and  to  make  me  suspect  that,  in  its  early  works,  the  Linga  is  not  to 
be  found,  and  that  it  only  came  into  use  when  the  division  between  the  followers  of  the  Linga  and 
loni  began  to  arise,  which  caused  the  horrible  civil  and  religious  wars,  noticed  in  my  former 
volume,  pp.  332,  &c. 

12.  The  founder  of  the  Peruvian  nation  was  called  Bockica,  the  son  and  emblem  of  the  Sun. 
He  was  high  priest  of  Soga-Mozo  (here  we  have  the  Saga).1  His  wife  was  called  Chta,  (Chia 
is  nothing  but  Eva  corrupted,)  Isis,  or  the  Moon :  he  was  described  with  three  heads.  Here, 
I  think,  are  the  Buddha  and  Trimurti  of  India.  His  priests  were  called  Xeques  and  Zaques.2 
(These  are  Xacas,  or  Sagas,  or  priests  of  Wisdom.)  Humboldt  says,  "  The  form  of  Government 
"  given  by  Bochica  to  the  inhabitants  of  Bogota  is  very  remarkable,  from  its  analogy  with  those 
"  of  Japan  and  Thibet,  The  Incas  of  Peru  united  in  their  person  the  temporal  and  spiritual 

*c  powers.    The  children  of  the  sun  were  both  priests  and  kings The  Pontiffs  or  Lamas, 

"  the  successors  of  Bochica,  were  considered  as  heirs  of  his  virtue  and  sanctity.  The  people 
f(  flocked  in  crowds  to  offer  presents  to  the  high  priests,  visiting  those  places  which  were  conse- 
"  crated  by  the  miracles  of  Bochica." 3  In  a  very  particular  and  pointed  manner  this  Bochica 
is  said  to  be  white  or  albus.  This  reminds  me  that  the  Sibyl  pronounces  the  while  sow  of  Alba 
to  be  black.  Alba  means  white :  was  Bochica  Alb  or  LB— L—50,  B=2=52  ?  He  had  a  peculiar 
cycle  of  13  years,  and  another  of  four  thirteens  or  52.  This  looks  as  if  there  was  some  reference 
to  our  astrological  instrument,  called  playing  cards,  which  certainly  came  from  North  India,  This 
docs  not  seem  so  wonderful  when  we  consider  that  we  have  just  found  their  cycles  the  same  as  the 
indictions  of  Constantine.  What  is  the  Romish  Alb  ? 

The  Peruvians  believed  in  one  Supreme  Being,  the  Creator  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  called  Vira- 
chocha  and  Pachacamack,4  who  had  revealed  to  them  his  religion. 5  The  Mexicans  called  their 
great  God  Yao  INEFFABLE  ; 6  and  represented  him  by  an  Eye  in  a  Triangle.  The  cross  was  every 
where  adored. T  The  Mexicans  expected  a  Messiah. 8  Their  history  of  the  flood  is  almost  a 
close  copy  of  that  of  Moses.9  Their  baptism10  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  is  almost  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Jews  and  Persians,  and  in  the  same  manner  they  named  their  children  and 
offered  them  in  the  temple.  They  had  the  custom  of  sacrificing  the  first-born,  the  same  as  the 
Jews,  till  it  was  done  away  by  Abraham  or  Moses.  They  had  also  the  right  of  circumcision. 
(Refer  to  Vol.  I.  Book  X.  Chap.  VI.  Sect.  13,  p.  724.)  »  Their  temples  were  in  the  form  of  a 
cross,  and  faced  the  four  cardinal  points.12  Their  language  has  many  Greek  and  Hebrew  words 
in  it.18  They  practised  auricular  confession.14  They  have  a  sacred  and  select  word  like  the 
Indian  Ow,  which  is  never  spoken  $  but  what  it  is,  I  do  not  find  mentioned* 

13,  The  union  of  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian  mythos  in  one  system,  instead  of  their  division 
into  two  systems,  at  once  proves  that  they  cannot  have  been  brought  to  Mexico  at  different  and 
distant  periods.  Had  this  been  the  case,  there  would  have  been  two  religions,  as  in  all  other 
cases,  in  opposition  to  one  another.  It  is  a  wonderful  circumstance,  that  the  Jews  coming  from 
the  city  of  Egypt  built  by  Alexander,  should  have  forgot  to  bring  with  them  the  knowledge  of 

1  Humboldt's  Res.  VoL  II.  p.  108,  ed.  Miss  Williams. 

*  Ant  of  Mex.  Vol.  VI.  p.  164  >,  Lord  Kingsborougk  calls  him  the  Mithra  or  Osiris  of  Bogota. 

3  Humboldt's  Res.  VoL  II.  p.  109,  ed.  Miss  Williams.  *  Antiq.  of  Mex,  VoL  VI,  p.  365.  *  Ib.  p.  128, 

76  Ibid.  P.  141.  ep.115.  9RH7.  "Pp.  45, 47. 

«  Pp.  67  and  1 15.  »  P.  96,  »  Pp.  1 15,  1 16.  «  R  1 15, 


BOOK    I.    CHAPTER   IV.   SECTION  13,  35 

letters  and  iron  ;  and  still  more  wonderful^  that  the  Christian  monks  coming  in  a  later  day  should 
have  had  equally  bad  memories.  AH  that  was  necessary  was,  for  those  Jews  to  have  told  these 
skilful  smelters  of  metals,  that  by  melting  the  lumps  of  their  native  iron  in  a  wood  fire  they  would 
get  iron  and  steel, 

The  identity  of  the  Mexican  and  Chinese  or  North  Indian  mythoses  being  unquestionable, 
attempts  have  been  made,  in  several  periodical  publications,  to  account  for  their  similarity  by 
supposing,  that  the  Mexicans  were  colonies  fleeing  from  the  arms  of  Mohamedan  or  Tartarian 
conquerors.  But  the  writers  do  not  tell  us  how  the  Jewish  and  Christian  doctrines  came  to  be  found 
in  America,  mixed  most  intimately  together,  and  also  with  the  idolatry  of  North  India  and  Greece, 
Other  writers  contend,  that  these  colonists  were  Mongol  or  Tartar  conquerors,  who,  not  contented 
with  the  conquest  of  China,  conquered  America  also.  But  this  leaves  all  the  great  difficulties 
I  have  stated  above  unremoved.  It  is  a  most  wonderful  thing  that  these  Tartarian  heroes  did  not 
take  with  them  the  knowledge  of  iron  or  letters  :  and  that  they,  being  Mohamedans,  should  convey 
the  Christian  religion  to  the  Mexicans  instead  of  that  of  Mohamed  ! 

It  is  also  wonderful  that  they  should  take  with  them  the  knowledge  of  the  Horse  and  the  Ass, 
though  they  did  not  take  these  animals  themselves  —  pictures  of  them  being  seen  every  where 
mixed  with  their  other  hieroglyphics  i  and,  what  is  still  more,  as  the  reader  will  instantly  see, 
mixed  most  intimately  with  the  Judaean  mythos,  —  a  hero  mounted  on  an  ass  or  a  horse,  sometimes 
carrying  a  sword,  sometimes  a  cross.  It  is  impossible,  on  viewing  them,  not  to  recollect  the 
procession  of  Jesus  Christ  on  the  ass,  into  Jerusalem.  The  mythoses  are  evidently  identical, 
but  their  variations  shew  that  they  are  not  copies.  Though  they  have  plenty  of  pictures  of  thq 
horse,  the  animal,  be  it  observed,  noticed  in  the  Revelation,  they  have  no  knowledge  of  the 
elephant  or  camel.  But  these  were  not  in  the  Revelation  5  were  no  part  of  the  mythos.  They 
have  no  sheep,  but  they  have  an  animal  like  it,  which  they  call  Llama  or  Lamb.  * 

No  part  of  the  Mexican  hieroglyphics  is  more  striking  than  the  exhibition  of  the  horse  or  <ws,2 
(for  some  are  doubtful,)  animals  totally  unknown  in  a  state  of  nature  to  the  Americans.  I  refer 
to  the  plates'  figures,  Faria  y  Sousa,  the  Jesuit,  says,  that  when  the  Portuguese  arrived  in  the 
Azores  they  found  the  statue,  cut  on  the  side  of  a  mountain,  of  a  man  on  horseback  wearing  a 
cloak,  his  left  hand  on  the  horse's  main,  his  right  pointing  to  the  West,  with  an  inscription  on  the 
lower  rock  but  not  understood.  3 

It  is  necessary  to  observe  here,  that  tribes,  both  of  Negroes  and  bearded  men,  were  found  in 
South  America.4 

The  Codex  Vaticanus,  Volume  II.,  is  marked  3738.  The  plates  in  it  are  numbered  to  146,  but 
the  explanation  goes  only  to  plate  92,  in  either  English  or  Spanish.  The  explanation  purports  to 
be  in  Volume  VI.  p.  155,  of  Lord  Kingsborough's  work.  My  reader  has  only  to  look  to  the 
figures,  of  the  crucifixes  which  I  have  given,  Fig.  12—14  ;  and  to  reflect  for  one  moment  upon  the 
admitted  anxiety  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  Popes  to  keep  the  knowledge  of  these  things  from  the 
European  world,  to  see  why  the  explanation  of  the  Codex  Vaticanus  ends  with  plate  92.  The 
remainder  has,  no  doubt,  been  suppressed  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  giving  an  explanation  of  the 
crucifixes* 

We  every  where  meet  with  the  Mexican  divine  names  ending  in  tie,  as  Teotle,  that  is,  Deo  or 
God  tie.    It  has  been  observed  by  Lord  Kingsborough,  as  well  as  by  almost  all  the  Spanish  m- 
S)  that  the  Mexican  language  is  so  full  of  Hebrew  words  as  to  be  almost  Hebrew*    We  have 


»  Antiq  pf  Mexico,  VoJ.VJLp  361. 

*  [Is  this  indisputable  ?  Do  not  the  accompaniments  of  the  rider  bespeak  a  Spanish  origin  ?  Yet,  is  not  the  Author's 
opinion  supported  by  the  testimony  of  Faria  y  Sousa?    Editor.] 
3  Vol.  I.  p.  19,  Eng.  Ed  4  Antiq.  of  Mexico,  Vol.  VI.  pp.  290,  291. 


36  1AWS  OP  THE  MEXICANS. 

seen  the  God  every  where  crucified  and  suspended  from  the  Cross.  We  have  found  the  sacred 
animal  the  Llama1  or  sheep.  We  have  found  the  niythos  of  the  crucified  Saviour*  We  have 
found  every  thing  at  last  to  centre  in  the  Sun.  The  word  tie  is  confessed  not  to  be  understood 
by  the  Mexicans,  nor  by  the  Spaniards,  who  call  it,  for  that  reason,  merely  a  termination.  All 
these  matters  considered,  I  think  it  may  be  the  same  as  the  word  n^ZO  He  or  xb®  tla,  the  Hebrew- 
name  of  the  sign  of  the  Zodiac,  dgnus  or  Aries.*  In  Hebrew  it  means,  when  spelt  with  the  tau, 
n^n  tie,  hanged  or  suspended.  See  Fig.  14.  I  believe  it  meant  crucified  by  hanging  on  a  cross. 
It  was  originally  Buddha,  as  noticed  before  in  Sect.  3,  p.  24.  For  the  same  reason  that  the  word 
meaning  650  was  applied  to  him,  it  was  in  succession  applied  to  the  God  of  wisdom,  to  the  Lamb — 
his  second  emblem,  and  to  the  crucified  God  Cristna. 

14.  All  the  Mosaic  history  is  to  be  found  in  China  according  to  Mons.  Paravey,  in  which 
he  only  repeats  what  was  before  pointed  out  by  Bergeron,  De  Guines,  &c.  The  Chinese 
historians  relate  that  one  of  their  ancient  despots  endeavoured  to  destroy  their  old  records, 
but  that  a  copy  of  their  history,  called  the  Chou-king,  escaped.  That  book  treats  of  the 
terrestrial  paradise,  its  rivers,  waters  of  immortality,  its  admirable  trees,  fall  of  the  angels  and 
of  man,  and  the  appearance  at  that  moment  of  mercy  ;  also  of  the  sabbath,  confusion  of  tongues, 
the  manna  in  the  Wilderness,  the  Trinity ;  and  of  the  Holy  One  in  the  West,  who  was  in- 
comprehensible and  one  with  the  TIEN.  It  states  that  the  world  cannot  know  the  Tien  except 
by  the  Holy  One,  who  only  can  offer  a  sacrifice  acceptable  to  the  CHANG-Ti.3  The  nations  arc 
waiting  for  him  like  plants  for  a  refreshing  shower.  The  Tien  is  the  Holy  One  invisible,  and  the 
Holy  One  is  the  Tien  made  visible  and  teaching  men.  All  this  was  taught  by  Confucius  five 
hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ.  Ancient  inscriptions  state  the  Jews  to  have  come  into 
China  about  the  time  of  Confucius.  This  is  probably  the  arrival  of  a  colony  or  doctrine  of  a  new 
incarnation  going  to  them  from  the  Western  Ay  oudia.  The  secret  doctrine  of  the  renewed  incar- 
nations seems,  by  being  misunderstood,  to  have  operated  with  them  precisely  as  it  did  with  their 
Indian  and  Tibetian  neighbours,  for  they  are  of  the  Tibetian  or  Buddhist  faith,  into  which  all  these 
doctrines  dovetail  perfectly.  These  facts  and  many  more  are  detailed  from  different  authors  by 
the  learned  Nimrod,  Vol.  III.  p.  510.  All  these  things  good  people,  like  Nimrod,  suppose  were 
taught  to  the  Tartars  and  Chinese  by  the  lost  tribes  of  Samaria.  Those  tribes  are  most  useful 
people  j  they  account  for  every  difficulty.  In  the  East,  in  the  West,  in  the  North,  in  the  South, 
they  are  always  ready  at  hand.  Here  is  all  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian  niythos  amalgamated 
precisely  as  it  is  in  Mexico,  in  Tibet,  North  India,  and  South  India,  all  carrying  with  it  proofs  of 
its  almost  universal  prevalence  or  dissemination.  But  notwithstanding  that  we  find  remnants  of 
this  mythos  every  where,  the  actual  character  of  which  cannot  be  doubted,  yet  in  the  respective 
countries  where  they  are  found,  the  system  is  obsolete  5  they  are  remnants  of  an  almost  forgotten 
system.  They  every  where  carry  traits  of  the  system  of  regeneration  or  of  the  cycles  recorded  in 
the  old  Druidical  circles  or  Cyclopsean  monuments,  found  along  with  them,  the  origin  of  which  is 
acknowledged  to  be  totally  unknown.  There  cannot  be  any  doubt  that  they  have  all  flowed  from 
the  same  fountain ;  have  the  same  origin ;  and  the  only  question  will  be,  whether  they  flowed 
from  the  kingdom  of  the  West,  which  Herodotus  could  not  find,  and  Alexander  thought  it  not 
worth  his  while  to  notice,  or  from  the  kingdom  of  Ayoudia  of  India,  with  its  capital  probably,  as 
appears  from  its  ruins,  once  the  largest  in  the  world — a  city  larger  than  London,  the  capital  of  an 
empire  more  extensive  than  Europe.  (See  Vol.  I.  p.  438.) 

There  is  scarcely  a  page  of  Lord  Kingsborough's  work  which  docs  not  exhibit  proofs  of  the 

1  Le  Lama.  *  Barret  on  the  Zodiacs,  p.  10. 

3  la  the  Chang-ti,  Ch  is  the  I  aspirated ;  <mg  is  a,  o,  rn  eo ,  Ti  is  Di,  the  whole,  Di  lao. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER   IV.    SECTION    15.  37 

anxiety  of  the  Spanish  government  to  suppress  the  information  which  I  have  just  now  detailed, 
and  which  does  not  also  shew  that  it  comes  to  us  through  the  medium  of  the  most  unwilling  of 
witnesses. l  Every  contrivance  which  was  possible  was  resorted  to  in  order  to  prevent  its  arrival 
in  Europe  ;  and  this  accounts  for  the  extraordinary  and  systematic  opposition  to  the  admission  of 
btrangera  into  New  Spain.  All  people  likely  to  be  intelligent,  such  as  physicians,  persons  sus- 
pected of  heresy,  &c,,  were  prohibited  from  going  thither.  The  reason  assigned  by  the  Spanish 
government  was,2  that  they  were  prevented  going  that  they  might  not  create  disputes  and  prevent 
conversions.  The  author  of  the  notes  to  Lord  Kingsborough's  book3  says,  that  he  believes  that 
the  Jews  colonized  America,  and  held  it  for  one  thousand  j^ears,  and  that  they  introduced  (as  it 
must  have  been  along  with  their  own)  the  Christian  rites  into  the  religion  of  the  Mexicans,  who 
had  never  heard  of  Christianity,  to  shew  their  hatred  of  Christianity,  and  to  turn  it  into  ridicule; 
and,  that  it  was  for  this  reason  that  they  established  the  Christian  doctrines  along  with  those  of 
the  Jews,— such  as  the  resurrection,  ascension,  &c.  The  passage  is  so  extraordinary,  that  I  think 
the  writer  must  have  meant  it  for  a  joke. 

The  close  connexion  between  the  Ameiicans  and  the  old  world  was  long  ago  seen,  notwith- 
standing all  the  exertions  of  the  Spaniards  to  keep  mankind  in  the  dark,  and  fruitless  endeavours 
were  made  by  Grotius  and  others  to  find  a  cause  for  it.  An  account  of  them  may  be  seen  in  Has- 
nage.4  It  is  there  observed,  that  one  of  the  districts  has  a  German  name — Estoteland;  that  the 
name  of  a  young  sheep  is  Lam ;  that  one  of  their  Gods  is  called  Theut,  and  one  of  their  kings 
Theucb,  evidently  the  same  name;  that  their  great  Creative  Principle  is  called  Pachacama;  (Pi- 
akm-cama,  that  is,  Pi-Acham,  the  wisdom  of  divine  Love;}  that  they  baptize  their  children  in  the 
form  of  the  cross,  and  have  a  notion  of  the  Trinity ;  that  they  adorn  their  idols  with  the  cross  and 
mitre ;  that  they  have  a  kind  of  Eucharist ;  that  virgins,  consecrated  to  the  God,  make  effigies  of 
paste  and  honey,  which  they  consecrate  with  much  ceremony,  and  afterward  distribute  to  the 
people,  who  believe  they  eat  the  body  of  their  God.  The  people  of  North  America  were  thought 
by  Penn  to  have  an  unaccountable  likeness  to  the  Jews,  and  the  Massagetoe  were  thought  to  be 
found  in  Massachusetts. 

Tibet  is  called  Tangutia.  This  is  evidently  ia  tangut,  the  country  of  Tangut.  The  close  simi- 
larity of  the  Trinitarian  and  other  doctrines  of  the  Tibetians  to  those  of  the  Romish  Christians  we 
have  seen.  It  is  surely  a  very  extraordinary  thing  to  find  the  Peruvian  triune  God  called  Tango- 
Tanga — evidently  the  same  as  the  God  of  Tibet,  both  in  name  and  character.5 

15.  In  Vol.  VI.  p.  793  the  Mexican  cottrts  are  shewn  to  have  had  exactly  the  same  number  of  judges 
as  those  of  the  Jews ;  that  their  sacred  numbers  were  exactly  the  same  5  and  that  both  nations  kept 
fasts  for  exactly  the  same  number  of  days.  Lord  Kingsborough  says,  "  the  common  law  of  every 
"  state  in  Europe  has  been  confessedly  modelled  after  the  Mosaic  law."6  This  is  a  very  impor- 
tant observation,  and  I  think  its  truth  will  not  be  disputed;  but  I  think  there  is  no  other  way  of 
accounting  for  it  than  to  go  to  my  primeval  nation.  The  common  law  in  most  states  is  evidently 
older  than  Christianity.  We  are  told  that  St.  Augustin  brought  Christianity  into  this  island  in 
the  year  596  ;  but  was  there  no  Christianity  in  the  time  of  Constantine  or  before  ?  Lord  Kings- 
borough  says,  (*  the  affinity  between  the  Mexican  and  the  Hebrew  laws  is  greater  than  between 
c*  the  latter  and  those  of  any  nation  with  which  we  are  acquainted."7  They  circumcised  with  a 
stone  knife,  the  use  of  which  was  expressly  ordered.8  It  is  remarkable  that  the  circumcision  of 

1  Antiq.  of  Mex.  Vol.  VI.  pp.  1 11.  et  seq.  *  Ib.  p.  268  *  Ib.  p,  283. 

*  Book  vi,  Ch.  iii.  *  See  Parsons'  Rem.  Jap.  pp.  206, 219,  220 $  also  Georgius,  Alplu  Tib.  p.  9. 

«  Antiq  of  Mex.  Vol.  VI.  pp.  271, 2?2,  »  Ibid,  p,  2?2. 

8  Ibid  p  273.    The  Abyssinian  Christians  practised  circumcision  and  abstained  from  Pork,  ibid.  p.  274, 


38  EASTER   ISLAND.— LAST  AVATAR  EXPECTED, 

the  Jews  should  have  been  performed  with  a  knife  made  of  stone,  which  is  emphatically  noticed  in 
the  Bible.1 

16.  Easter  Island  is  situated  in  N.  L.  27°  5"  W.  L.  109°  46' :  it  may  be  considered  to  be  a  part 
of  America.    The  most  remarkable  curiosity  in  this  island  is  a  number  of  colossal  statues.    On 
the  East  side  of  the  island  were  seen  the  ruins  of  three  platforms  of  stone-work,  on  each  of 
which  had  stood  four  of  these  large  statues  ;  but  they  were  all  fallen  down  from  two  of  them,  and 
one  from  the  third  :  they  were  broken  or  defaced  by  the  fall.     One  was  fifteen  feet  long  and  six 
feet  broad  over  the  shoulders  :  each  statue  had  on  its  head  a  large  cylindric  stone  of  a  red  colour, 
wrought  perfectly  round,    Others  measured  nearly  twenty-seven  feet,  and  upwards  of  eight  feet 
over  the  shoulders :  and  a  still  larger  one  was  seen  standing,  the  shade  of  which  was  sufficient  to 
shelter  all  the  party  of  Captain  Cook,  who  reports  this,  from  the  sun.    The  workmanship  is  rude, 
but  not  bad,  nor  are  the  features  of  the  face  ill  formed :  the  ears  are  long,  according  to  the  dis- 
tortion practised  in  that  island,  and  the  bodies  have  hardly  any  thing  of  a  human  figure  about 
them.    How  these  islanders,  wholly  unacquainted  with  any  mechanical  power,  could  raise  such 
stupendous  figures,  and  afterwards  place  the  large  cylindric  stones  upon  their  heads,  is  truly 
wonderful  i    It  is  observed  that  the  most  probable  conjecture  is,  that  the  stone  is  factitious.    The 
island  is  about  ten  or  twelve  leagues  in  circumference,2  and  must  be  in  the  Gulf  of  California. 
But  see  Cook  and  Forster's  Voyage,  March,  1774.    The  Encyclopedia  Londinensis  says,   the 
names  of  the  two  statues  left  standing  are  Dago  and  Taurico.     Here  we  have  Dagon  and  Taurus* 
Surely  nothing  can  be  more  curious  than  these  statues.    Who  placed  them  here  j  and  when  were 
they  set  up  ? 

17.  Every  one  must  remember  the  accounts  of  the  perfect  horror  with  which  the  unhappy 
Mexicans  viewed  the  first  horses,  which  the  Spaniards  took  over  to  their  country.    This  I  will 
now  account  for.     It  appears  from  Lord  Kingsborough's  book,  &c.,  that  they  had  all  the  mythos 
which  has  been  so  fully  explained,  of  the  old  world, — the  immaculate  conception,  the  crucifixion, 
the  resurrection  after  three  days,  the  expectation  of  the  return  of  their  crucified  Saviour,  &c.,  &c. 
Every  Indian  inquirer  knows  that  the  last  Avatar  was  always  expected  by  the  people  of  Java  to 
come  mounted  on  a  white  horse.    Now,  in  several  of  the  Mexican  hieroglyphic  pictures,  though 
their  owners  knew  nothing  of  the  horse,  an  animal,  which  might  be  either  a  horse  or  an  ass,  is 
painted.  ID  these  same  pictures,  the  other  parts  of  the  mythos,  the  crucifixion,  &c.,  are  described. 
From  this  it  is  evident,  that  although  they  were  not  able  to  convey  the  horse  over  the  sea,  yet 
they  could  convey  every  part  of  the  mythos  \  the  result  of  this  was,  that  when  the  Spaniards 
arrived  in  Hying  machines,  or  machines  propelled  by  the  winds, — on  the  wings  of  the  wind,— 
across  the  boundless  ocean,  or  from  heaven,— their  commander  mounted  on  the  unknown  animal, 
described  in  their  ancient  pictures  to  be  that  on  which  the  promised  God  was  to  come ; 3  and, 
carrying  in  his  hand  thunder  and  lightning,  with  which  he  destroyed  his  enemies  at  miles  distant 
from  him,  he  was  believed  to  be  the  last  Avatar.    Lord  Kingsborough  gives  a  very  interesting 
account  of  the  effect  which  this  superstition  or  belief  had  upon  their  conduct— taking  away  from 
most  of  them,  from  devotion,  all  wish  to  resist  their  God,  mounted  on  his  horse  and  surrounded 
by  thunder  and  lightning-^and  from  others,  through  fear,  all  power :  thus  giving  to  their  cruel 
enemies  an  easy  victory.    I  cannot  conceive  it  possible  to  devise  any  thing  more  conclusive  of 
the  truth  of  my  whole  system  than  this.    All  this  accounts  for  numbers  of  circumstances  relating 

1  See  Exod,  iv  25 ;  Josh  v-  3;  and  Ant.  of  Mex.  Vol.  VI.  p.  187-  *  Encyclopaedia  Brit,  art,  Enster  Island 

*  The  effect  which  the  death  of  the  first  horse  had  on  the  Mexicans  has  been  thought  very  extraordinary  and  unac- 
countable. It  is  now  easily  explained .  by  the  destruction  of  the  immortal,  celestial  animal  they  were  in  part  unde- 
ceived. 


BOOK  I.   CHAPTER  IV.  SECTION  18.  39 

to  the  conduct  of  Montezuma  and  his  people,  which  have  hitherto  been  utterly  unintelligible. 
And  I  think  it  seems  evident,  that  if  the  miscreants  from  Spain  had  really  understood  their  own 
case,  they  would  have  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  have  quietly  taken  possession  of  the  whole  empire 
as  its  last  Avatar  and  newly- arrived  God. 

Well,  indeed,  might  Peter  Martyr,  Las  Casas,  and  Torquemada,  be  puzzled  with  the  horse,  the 
actual  horse  of  the  Revelation,  in  a  country  where  the  people  had  not  the  knowledge  of  the  animal, 
or  indeed  of  any  animal  of  the  old  world.  Instead  of  accepting  the  possession  of  the  empire 
peaceably  offered  to  them,  by  a  most  absurd  and  extraordinary  mistake,  the  Spaniards  determined 
to  terrify  the  people  by  ill  usage,  the  account  of  which  is  given  in  the  Antiquities  of  Mexico.1 

18.  Col.  Tod2  states  the  mountains  above  Tibet,  the  highest  ridge  of  Asia,  to  be  called  Andes — 
these  must  have  been  in  the  countries  of  Tungusians,  It  is  impossible  on  reading  this  not  to 
recollect  the  Andes  and  the  Tanga-Tanga  of  Peru ;  and  it  is  equally  impossible  to  attribute  this 
paranomasia  and  the  other  circumstances  already  described  to  accident.  To  account  for  this  I 
look  into  ancient  histories,  and  I  adopt  the  first  rational  and  philosophical  cause  which  is  recorded, 
and  without  difficulty  I  find  it  in  the  communication  formed  by  the  island  of  Atlantis  of  Plato ; 
for  the  subsequent  submerging  of  such  an  island  or  continent  is  neither  improbable  nor  irrational, 
— - but,  when  the  attendant  circumstances  are  considered,  a  dry  historical  fact,  carrying  probability 
on  the  face  of  it  It  is  no  more  improbable  than  the  effects  we  see  produced  by  volcanoes  every 
day.  It  is  neither  impossible  nor  improbable  that  when  the  Atlantis  sunk,  something  of  the  same 
kind  should  have  happened  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  legend  of  the  sinking  of  a  very  large  island  is  now  well  known  in  China  and  Japan,  and  in 
both  places  an  annual  festival  is  kept  to  celebrate  the  escape  of  au  excellent  prince  called  Pdrwm.* 
I  cannot  help  suspecting  an  identity  of  mythos  or  an  identity  of  fact.  I  apprehend,  if  the  whole 
or  a  great  part  of  the  Polynesian  Islands  constituted  the  highest  grounds  of  a  large  continent 
which  sunk,  the  effect  would  be,  when  the  sinking  took  place,  to  raise  up  the  waters  so  as  to 
drown  all  the  inhabitants,  and  after  a  short  time  to  subside,  and  leave  the  points  of  the  mountains 
dry  as  islands.  After  all,  a  great  difficulty  must  be  allowed  to  exist,  in  all  speculations  on  this 
subject,  arising  from  the  fact,  that  there  are  none  of  the  animals  of  one  continent  found  in  the 
other.  See  Vol.  I.  pp,  293,  294,  for  M.  Cuvier's  opinion  on  this  part  of  the  subject. 

The  Mexicans,  in  their  histories,  as  already  stated,  say  they  arrived  in  their  present  country 
from  the  West.  They  always  persist  most  strenuously  that  it  was  from  the  West  they  came  $  and 
they  describe  towns  on  the  coast  where  they  remained,  for  many  years,  in  their  progress  to  their 
present  situation,  the  ruins  of  which,  they  assert,  are  yet  to  be  seen.  They  say  they  came  across 
the  sea  from  another  country.  Now,  was  this  Atlantis  or  not  ?  It  is  very  desirable  that  the 
remains  of  the  towns  should  be  sought  for. 

Lord  Kingsborough  has  gone  to  an  enormous  length  in  proving  that  the  Mexican  rites,  cere- 
monies, &c.,  &c,,  were  almost  precisely  the  same  as  those  of  the  Jews,  and  that  they  must  conse- 
quently have  been  brought  by  the  Jews  to  Mexico.  But  one  most  important  observation  offers 
itself  on  this  :  We  possess  what  we  believe  to  be  the  knowledge  of  all  the  Jewish  rites,  history, 
&c.,  &c.,  in  Syria ;  but  this  is  not  the  way  all  these  things  are  known  by  the  Americans.  All  the 
things  said  to  have  taken  place  in  Western  Syria,  both  with  Jews  and  Christians,  are  said  to  have 
been  acted  in  America,  and  the  case,  in  a  great  measure,  is  the  same  in  India  and  China.  There 
is  the  same  standing  still  of  the  sun,  the  same  populifugia,  the  same  deluge  and  persons  saved  in 
a  ship,  the  same  immaculate  conception,  the  same  crucifixion  and  resurrection  \  but  they  were  all 
in  the  American  country,  not  in  Syria.  Now,  it  is  very  improbable  that  if  the  Jews  of  Western 

1  Vol.  VI.  p.  343.  *  Annals  and  Antiq.  of  Rajast'han,  Vol.  I.  p.  44, 

a  Kffirnpfer's  Japan,  Vol.  II.  Append,  p.  13  3  Fab,  Orig.  Fag,  Idol  Vol.  IL  p.  180. 


40  GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS. 

Judaea  or  of  Moses  had  gone  in  a  body  from  their  old  country,  they  would  ever  wish  or  permit  their 
history  to  be  located  in  the  new  one,  towers  of  Babel  to  be  built,  waters  to  be  passed,  or  places 
to  be  shewn  where  the  sun  stood  still.  Nothing  can  account  for  all  this  except  that,  in  all 
countries,  including  among  them  Western  Judaea,  it  was  the  figurative  description  of  the  renewed 
Avatars. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  mythos  which  I  have  shewn  to  have  universally  prevailed,  accounts  in 
a  satisfactory  manner,  with  one  exception,  for  all  the  difficulties.  Parts  of  it  we  have  seen  every 
where ;  a  small  part  of  it  in  one  place,  and  a  small  part  in  another,  but  all,  including  the  Jewish, 
the  same  mythos.  The  discovery  of  the  same  system  in  America,  as  that  in  South  India,  in 
North  India,  in  Tibet,  in  Western  Syria,  &c.,  proves  that  at  some  extremely  remote  sera  the  same 
mythos  must  have  prevailed;  and  the  variations  which  we  find,  whilst  at  the  same  time  the  general 
character  is  preserved,  are  what  we  may  naturally  expect  would  arise  as  time  advanced.  What 
we  have  now  are  the  debris  of  the  system. 

19,  We  must  recollect  that  the  neglect  to  teach  the  Mexicans  the  arts  of  writing  and  making 
iron,  cannot  be  attributed  merely  to  a  few  stray  mariners  and  fishermen  blown  across  the  ocean. 
The  knowledge  of  the  Americans,  if  canied  to  them  at  all  in  later  times,  must  have  been  carried 
by  regular  colonies  from  Greece,  who  taught  them  the  rites  and  name  of  Bacchus  ;  of  colonies 
from  Syria,  who  taught  them  all  the  minute  parts  of  the  Judaean  mythos ;  of  colonies  from 
Tartary  and  China,  who  taught  them  the  knowledge  of  the  niythoses  of  those  countries ;  of  colo- 
nies from  Europe,  who  taught  them  modern  but  not  Papist  Christianity. l  Is  there  a  human 
being  so  credulous  as  to  believe  that  all  these  colonies  or  parties  of  migrators,  following  one 
another  time  after  time,  should  have  omitted  to  convey  the  knowledge  of  iron  and  letters  ?  I  am 
sure  no  person  will  be  found  to  believe  this :  then  what  are  we  to  believe,  but  that  one  great  and 
learned  race  held  all  these  doctrines,  as  taught  by  me,  in  a  period  of  the  world  when  the  inter- 
course between  the  old  and  new  worlds  was  easy  compared  with  what  it  is  at  at  this  time  ? 

The  one  exception  alluded  to  above  is  the  difficulty  of  accounting  for  means  by  which  the 
system  reached  America.  To  meet  this,  may  we  not  have  recourse  to  the  formerly-named  island 
of  Atlantis,  of  the  submersion  of  which  we  are  informed  by  Plato,  and  which,  I  suppose,  almost 
connected  the  two  worlds  ?  It  was  probably  so  near  both,  that,  in  the  frail  boats  of  those  days, 
colonies  could  pass,  but  in  which  the  large  animals  could  not  be  conveyed.  Of  course  this  submer- 
sion must  have  taken  place,  and  cut  off  the  communication  between  the  two  worlds  before  the 
knowledge  of  letters  and  the  use  of  iron. 

It  cannot  be  believed  that  if  ever  the  Mexicans  had  been  told  of  the  existence  and  use  of  iron, 
excellent  refiners  and  smelters  of  metals  as  they  were,  that  they  would  not  instantly  have  obtained 
it  from  their  mountains,  where  it  is  found  in  its  native  state.  I  shall  be  asked,  How  they  could 
pass  in  any  great  numbers,  without  the  means  of  conveying  the  Horse,  ttie  Cow,  the  Sheep  ? 
For,  if  the  two  worlds  were  nearly  connected  by  an  intermediate  island  or  islands,  the  passage  of 
the  animals  would  have  taken  place.  I  admit  the  force  of  the  argument  in  its  fullest  extent  5  as  I 
do  the  difficulty  of  accounting  for  the  extraordinary  fact,  that  there  were  none  of  the  animals  of 
the  old  world  in  America.  However,  at  last,  an  intimate  connexion  between  the  two  worlds  must 
be  admitted  to  have  existed,  and  to  have  existed  before  the  knowledge  of  iron  or  letters,  in  the 
countries  the  Mexicans  came  from. 

Some  pet  sons  have  thought  that  the  Americans  were  colonies  who  passed  by  the.  North,  where 
the  continents  join,  or  nearly  join  ;  and,  to  the  question,  why  they  had  not  the  horse  ?—  it  may  be 
replied,  that  if  the  natives  of  Tartary  or  China  emigrated  by  the  North,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 

1  The  seed  bruising  the  head,  not  the  \\oman. 


BOOK   II.    CHAPTER   IV.    SECTION    19.  41 

the  Arctic  circle,  as  it  must  have  been  by  that  route,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  horse  could 
not  have  been  conveyed  through  this  cold  climate,  perhaps  could  not  have  lived  there.  It  is  said  that 
the  North-east  of  Tartary  is  too  cold  for  this  animal;  and  that  there  are  none  there.  If  we  admit 
this,  then  we  may  suppose  that  the  migration  took  place  from  China,  where  the  Hebrew  language 
was  spoken,  and  where  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  system  flourished,  as  it  has  before  been  shewn 
to  have  done  in  a  very  early  period.  l  And  if  the  emigrants  went  from  China,  we  may  thus  account 
for  their  going  without  taking  with  them  the  knowledge  of  syllabic  writing.  If  we  suppose  a  body 
of  Japanese  or  Chinese,  amounting  only  to  a  few  thousands  on  their  arrival  in  Mexico,  after  jour- 
neying for  forty  or  fifty  years,  we  may  readily  suppose  that  they  would  increase  to  two  or  three 
hundred  millions  in  five  or  six  hundred  years,  in  that  fine  soil  and  climate.  But  suppose  we  ac- 
count for  their  ignorance  of  letters,  and  the  want  of  horses,  cows,  &c.,  in  this  manner ;  this  will 
not  account  for  the  ignorance  of  iron,  and  at  the  same  time  for  the  knowledge  of  the  mythoses  of 
all  the  nations  which  I  have  just  now  enumerated :  and,  satisfactorily  to  account  for  this,  I  am  con- 
vinced we  must  ultimately  go  to  my  hypothesis,  which  naturally  and  easily  explains  the  diffi- 
culties. 

Lord  Kingsborough's  work  is  unquestionably  the  most  magnificent  ever  undertaken  by  an  indi- 
vidual. It  is,  indeed,  an  honour  to  his  order  and  to  his  country.  The  bringing  together  into  one 
view,  by  means  of  Lithographic  copies,  the  different  manuscripts,  from  different  and  distant  coun- 
tries, will  prove,  indeed  has  already  proved,  of  the  greatest  importance  to  science,  and  must  greatly 
aid  the  philosopher  in  his  inquiries. 


1  Sect.  14,  p.  36. 
VOL.  TI.  G 


BOOK  II. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  NOT  NEW.—THE  CARMELITES  PYTHAGOREANS. — PONTIFEX  MAXIMUS. — SEVEN  SA- 
CRAMENTS. EUCHARIST. — BAPTISM. — CHRISTENING.— CONFIRMATION. — BAPTISM  OF  BELLS.— ORDINA- 
TION.— MARRIAGE.— EXTREME  UNCTION. — PURGATORY. — AURICULAR  CONFESSION. 

1.  I  SHALL  now  proceed  to  complete  the  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  Ammonius  Saccas, 
by  shewing  that  every  part  of  the  VULGAR  Christian  religion  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  vulgar 
religion  of  the  Gentiles  $  that  there  is  nothing  new  in  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  ;  that,  in  short, 
it  is  Reformed  or  Protestant  Gentilism. 

The  reader  has  now  seen  that  several  of  the  MOST  important  doctrinal  parts  of  corrupt  modern 
Christianity  are  nothing  more  than  scraps  of  the  Heathen  mythologies  of  various  kinds  taught  by 
different  nations,  long  previous  to  the  Christian  aera.  He  has  seen  the  immaculate  conception, 
the  incarnation,  the  trinity,  with  its  various  hypostases,  and  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection,  on 
all  of  which  I  have  yet  much,  which  is  very  important,  to  produce.  But,j£rs#,  I  think  it  expedient 
to  shew  where  a  great  number  of  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  minor  importance  came  from.  It 
is  more  than  probable  that  every  part  has  been  copied  from  some  former  religion  ;  that  no  part  of 
what  has  been  really  the  system  of  the  Christian  priests  was  invented  originally  for  their  use. 
To  tradition  it  is  indebted  for  every  doctrine  and  rite  wbich  it  possesses,  though  to  fraudulent  and 
disbonest  practices  it  is  chiefly  indebted  for  their  establishment.  This  will  be  said  to  be  a  severe 
and  unjust  sentence  against  the  priests;  but  I  am  supported  in  my  charge  against  them  of 
systematic  falsity  and  fraud,  by  some  of  our  first  divines — Burnet,  Mosheim,  &c.  In  the  very 
early  ages  they  not  only  practised  it,  but  they  reduced  it  to  system  ;  (I  allude  to  Origen's  (Eco- 
nomia  $)  they  avowed  it  5  and  they  justified  it,  by  declaring  it  to  be  meritorious  if  in  a  good 
cause.  I  repeat,  it  was  justified  by  the  highest  divines  in  the  church— openly  practised— I  believe 
was  never  disavowed  by  any  Pope,  Council,  or  authorized  body ;  and,  as  I  have  proved  in  this 
work,  is  continued  by  Archbishops  to  this  day,  who  just  practise  as  much  fraud,  as  the  improved 
state  of  the  human  mind  will  tolerate. 

I  must  say  of  Christian  priests  and  their  histories  what  Nimrod  *  has  said  on  another  class  of 
persons :  "  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  facts  delivered  under  circumstances  which  deprive  the  testi- 
"  mony  of  all  moral  value  ;  where  falsehood  is  not  an  accident  but  a  property  of  the  speaker's 
"  character,  and  is  not  the  error  of  a  moment  or  the  crime  of  an  individual,  but  au  organic 
"  bystem."  The  system  of  fraud  is  yet  continued  in  the  Protestant  Church  of  England  :  for  one 
instance  of  which,  I  produce  what  is  called  the  Apostles'  Creed,  which  purports  to  be  the  compo- 
sition of  the  Apostles,  (as  the  Nicene  Creed  purports  to  be  the  composition  of  the  Council  of  Nice, 
and  the  Athanasian  Creed,  the  composition  of  St.  Athanasius,)  when  it  is  well  known  to  every 

»  Vol.  II.  p,  494. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  I.   SECTION  1.  43 

Bishop  on  the  Bench,  that  however  true  it  may  be,  it  was  not  composed  or  written  till  long  after 
the  death  of  all  the  Apostles  :  by  whom,  or  when,  or  where,  it  was  written  no  one  knows ;  but  the 
people  are  deluded  into  a  belief,  that  it  is  not  the  work  of  a  council  or  individual,  like  those  of 
Nice  or  St.  Athana&ius,  but  of  the  collective  body  of  the  elect  companions  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Now  if  we  reflect  upon  the  contents  of  the  last  book,  and  consider  that  all  the  esoteric  doctrines 
of  the  Orientals  and  of  the  tribe  of  loudi  or  Jews,  and  of  Plato  and  the  Heathens  generally,  were 
at  the  bottom  the  same  \  we  shall  not  be  surprised  at  finding  the  Lama  of  Rome  adopting  such  of 
the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  his  Heathen  predecessors  as  he  thought  consistent  with  its  restora- 
tion to  \^hat  was,  in  his  opinion,  its  primeval  purity — what  he  considered  its  corruptions  being 
left  out. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Taylor,  in  his  Diegesis,  has  undertaken  to  shew  that  what  Protestants  have 
maintained  to  be  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  were  the  origination  of  it :  and  that  the  early 
Christians  were  nothing  but  Egyptian  Essenes  or  Monks,  and  that  the  Gospel  histories  were 
extracts  or  compilations  from  the  secret  writings  of  these  persons.  To  support  this  assertion,  he 
has  given  a  translation  of  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Eusebius's  Ecclesiastical 
History,  in  which  the  early  Christians  are  most  clearly  proved  to  have  been  the  Monks  called 
Essenes.  That  the  Gospel  histories  are  not  originals,  has  been  admitted  by  all  divines  I  believe, 
who  have,  or  who  wish  to  have,  any  character  for  learning.  Reasoning  after  the  manner  of  the 
German  divines — Semler,  Lessing,  Niemeyer,  Halfeld,  Eichhorn,  Michaelis,  &c.,— the  learned 
Bishop  Marsh  has  put  this  out  of  all  doubt.  In  his  Notes  on  Michaelis,  he  has  discussed  it  at 
great  length.  Whether  the  Gospel  histories  were  copied  from  the  Essenean  Scriptures  may  yet 
admit  of  doubt,  but  certainly  Mr.  Taylor  has  shewn  that  all  the  ecclesiastical  polity  of  the  Chris- 
tian is  a  close  copy  from  that  of  the  Esseneans,  or  I  should  say,  Carmelites,  according  to  the 
account  in  Eusebius,  when  honestly  translated.  Their  parishes,  churches,  bishops,  priests, 
deacons,  festivals,  are  all  identically  the  same.  They  had  Apostolic  founders;  the  manners  which 
distinguished  the  immediate  apostles  of  Christ ;  Scriptures  divinely  inspired  3  the  same  allego- 
rical mode  of  interpreting  them,  which  has  since  obtained  among  Christians,  and  the  same  order 
of  performing  public  worship.  They  had  missionary  stations  or  colonies  of  their  community 
established  in  Rome,  Corinth,  Galatia,  Ephesus,  Philippi,  Colosse,  and  Thessalonica,  precisely 
such,  and  in  the  same  circumstances,  as  were  those  to  whom  St.  Paul  addressed  his  letters  in 
those  places.  Long  before  Mr.  Taylor  wrote,  I  had  written  my  opinion  that  the  Essenes  were  not 
Christians,  but  that  the  Christians  of  the  Pope  were  Essenes. 1  All  the  fine  moral  doctrines 
which  are  attributed  to  the  Samaritan  Nazarite,  and  I  doubt  not  justly  attributed  to  him,  are  to 
be  found  among  the  doctrines  of  these  ascetics  5  but  they  are  found  unalloyed  with  the  pernicious, 
demoralising  nonsense,2  which  St.  Paul  and  some  of  the  fathers  of  the  Romish  Church  obtruded 
into  their  religion,  and  into  what  they  were  pleased  to  call,  though  to  miscal  his  religion  :  and  a 
great  part,  and  the  worst  part  of  which,  has  been  retained  by  Protestants.  If  the  opinion  be  well 
founded,  that  their  Scriptures  were  the  originals  of  the  Gospel  histories,  then  it  will  follow 
almost  certainly3  that  they  must  have  been  the  same  as  the  Samaneans  or  Gymnosophists  of 
Porphyry  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and  their  books,  which  they  were  bound  by  such  solemn 
oaths  to  keep  secret,  must  have  been  the  Vedas  of  India ;  or  some  Indian  books  containing  the 
mythoses  of  Moses  and  Jesus  Christ :  and  this  opinion,  the  striking  similarity  between  the 


*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.81— 84. 

*  May  not  this  harsh  opinion  have  originated  in  a  too  vivid  recollection  of  the  doctrines  deduced  from  the  writings  of 
St.  Paul,  by  both  ancient  and  modern  polemics  ?    Editor. 

62 


44  THE   CARMELITES   PYTHAGOREANS. 

histories  of  Buddha,  Cristna,  and  Jesus,  seems  strongly  to  support.  The  Gymnosophists,  it  may 
be  remembered,  we  have  found  in  great  power  in  the  isle  of  Meroe,  in  Upper  Egypt,  giving  laws 
to  the  kings, l  This  is  the  most  reasonable  scheme  which  I  have  been  able  to  devise  to  account 
for  the  identity  of  the  history  of  Jesus  and  Cristna :  and  this  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  Mr.  Taylor. 
Benj.  Constant  says,a  "En  g^ndral,  on  n'a  pas,  a  ce  qu'il  nous  parait,  assez  consid6re  la 
ressemblance  du  clerg£  Chretien  avec  les  institutions  hierarchiques  des  peuples  du  Nord.  Cette 
resserablance  est  si  frappante,  m&me  dans  les  details,  que  les  ordres  religieux  en  ont  t\r€  la 
consequence  qu'ils  descendaient  des  Druides.  Un  historian  de  la  communautg  des  Cannes 
appelle  les  Druides  sanctos  druides>  Eliae  filios,  fratres  nostros  et  prasdecessores  (Hist.  Carmel, 
Ordin,  I.  1,  4).  Si  vivendi  genus  et  observantias  regulares  serio  discusseris,  dit  un  autre  ecrivain, 
reperies  veros  fuisse  (Druidas)  Carmelitas." 

In  the  course  of  my  studies  I  have  turned  my  attention,  in  a  very  particular  manner,  to  the 
Ebsenes,  and  it  was  my  intention  to  have  had  a  much  longer  chapter  than  I  have  given  relating  to 
them  in  this  work,  but  the  learned  and  ingenious  Deist,  the  Rev.  Robert  Taylor,  has  superseded 
me.     It  is  of  no  use  merely  to  rewrite  the  substance  of  what  he  has  written  respecting  them  in  his 
Diegesis,  and  written  better  than  I  could  do  it.    The  Romish  Church,  I  believe,  maintains  that  the 
Essenes  and  the  Carmelites  were  the  same  order  of  men.     Of  the  truth  of  this  I  have  no  doubt. 
Pythagoras  is  allowed  to  have  been  an  Essenean,  and  he  dwelt  or  v/as  initiated  into  the  order  on 
Carmel.     Pope  Gregory  the  Great  invited  the  Carmelites  from  Syria  and  Egypt  to  Home,  and 
founded  two  most  splendid  and  beautiful  monasteries  of  the  barefoot  and  the  calceated  orders  •  and 
at  that  time  he  abolished  their  old  rule,  and  gave  them  a  new  one.     With  the  assistance  of  a  most 
respectable  friend,  an  Augustinian.  monk  of  the  name  of  Rice,  at  both  the  times  when  I  visited 
Rome,  I  applied  to  the  librarians  at  the  monasteries,  and  endeavoured  to  obtain  a  bio-ht  of  their 
old  rule,  by  which  they  lived  before  the  time  of  Gregory,  which  they  acknowledged  that  they 
possessed,  but  of  which,  after  having  first  promised  it,  they  would  not  permit  me  to  have  the 
inspection.     Within  the  cupola  of  St.  Peter's  is  a  colossal  statue  of  the  prophet  Elias,  under 
which  is  the  inscription,  Uni versus  Carmelitarum  Ordo  Fundatori  suo  S.  Ehse  Prophetse  erexit 
A.  MDCCXXVII.    I  believe  if  he  were  not  the  founder  he  regulated  the  order.     But  its  first 
regulation,  I  think,  may  be  found  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Numbers. 3    A  slight  attention  will  satisfy 
any  reader  that  Moses  was  then  regulating  an  order  brought  from  Egypt,  not  instituting  a  new 
one.    They  were  called  Nazarites.    Jesus  Christ  was  called  a  Nazante,  not  a  Nazarene.     It  is 
odd  enough  that  our  learned  Grecians  should  not  see,  that  Nafyopaiog  does  not  mean  Nazarene 
but  Nazarite :  had  it  meant  Nazarene  it  would  have  been  Na£apijvo$.     He  was  a  Nazarite  of  the 
city  of  Nazareth  or  of  the  city  of  the  Nazarites. 4     At  that' place  was  the  monastery  of  Nazarites 
or  Carmelites,  where  Pythagoras  and  Elias  both  dwelt,  under  Carmel  the  vineyard  or  Garden 
of  God. 

2.  But  the  Romish  Christ  was  something  more  than  this.  He  was  a  renewed  incarnation  of 
Divine  Wisdom.  He  was  the  son  of  Maia  or  Maria.  He  was  the  Rose  of  Sharon  and  the  Lily 
of  the_  Valley,  which  bloweth  in  the  month  of  his  mother  Maia.  Thus,  when  the  angel  Gabriel 
gives  the  salutation  to  the  Virgin,  (see  hundreds  of  very  old  pictures  in  Italy,)  he  always  presents 
her  with  the  Lotus  or  Lily.  Mr.  Parkhurst  says  of  the  lily,5  «  Its  six-leaved  flower  contains 
"  within  it  seven  apices  or  chives,  i.  e.  six  single-headed  ones  and  one  triple-headed  one,  in  the 
«  midst— emblems  of  the  five  primary  planets  and  of  the  moon,  and  the  triple- headed  chive  or 

1  Vol.  I.  p.  356.  *  Thfcse  Th£olog  soutenue  ^  Beziers,  en  1682 ;  Const.  Vol.  II.  p.  1 12. 

3  Verses  I3~21>  4  See  Vol.  I,  pp.  540,  65S,  657,  '  In  voce  **  «,  V. 


BOOK    II.   CHAPTER   I.   SECTION   2.  45 

"  style  in  the  midst,  of  the  sun  in  the  centre  of  this  system."  Here,  I  think,  in  this  Lily  we  have 
a  very  pretty  emblem  of  the  trinitarian  sun,  the  Creator,  Preserver,  and  Destroyer,  in  the  centre 
of  his  system.  And  where  did  this  Lily  grow  ?  It  was  in  Canuel,  the  Garden  or  Vineyard  of  God, 
that  this  Nazir  was  found  at  Nazareth.  But  Nazir  or  Natzir  means  a  flower,  and  that  flower  the 
Lotus  or  Lily ;  and  it  grew  in  the  Valley  of  the  Garden  of  God.  My  reader  may  think  this  very 
mystical,  but  let  him  turn  to  the  Bible  and  read  the  account  of  the  Lilies  and  Pomegranates  in  the 
temple  of  Solomon,  on  the  high-priest's  dress,  and  in  the  Canticles  and  works  of  Solomon,  where 
may  be  found  the  loves  of  Christ  and  his  church,  as  our  Bibles,  in  the  heads  of  their  chapters,  call 
them.  I  request  him  also  to  refer  to  what  I  have  said  in  Vol,  I.  pp.  339,  340,  respecting  the 
Lotus  or  Lily. 

The  Carmelites  are  in  a  vert/  peculiar  manner  attached  to  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Maria, 
more  particularly  than  any  of  the  other  monastic  orders.  In  Egypt  they  dwelt,  as  Eusebius  says, 
on  the  borders  of  the  lake  of  Maria,  and  in  Upper  Egypt  the  Gymnosophists,  that  is,  the  Indian 
philosophers,  were  found  in  the  island  of  Meroe.  This,  in  the  old  language  without  points,  would 
be  the  same  as  Maria.  It  was  near  this  place  that  Dr.  Wilson  found  the  temple  with  the  history 
of  the  flight  of  Joseph  and  Mary  in  it,  depicted  with  the  greatest  truth  and  precision,  noticed  before 
in  Vol,  I.  p.  272.  Now  this  being  considered,  I  think  it  raises  a  presumption  that  there  was  some 
foundation  for  the  story  of  Jesus,  or  some  other  person  for  whom  he  has  been  substituted,  fleeing 
from  a  tyrant  who  wished  to  kill  him,  and  who  may  have  been  dedicated,  as  Samuel  was  by  his 
parents,  and  who  may,  therefore,  have  become  an  object  of  jealousy  to  the  tyrant,  and  of  atten- 
tion to  Eastern  astrologers,  who  might  know  that  the  period  was  ending,  as  Virgil  "knew  it  at 
Rome,  and  that  a  new  protecting  Genius  would  come  to  preside  over  the  new  age ;  and  in  con- 
sequence these  astrologers,  kings,  might  come  to  offer  him  their  gifts — kings  of  the  Mithiaic  order 
of  the  Magi,  (vide  Tertullian,)  like  our  kings  at  arms  of  the  order  of  heralds,  not  kings  of  nations. 
In  the  book  of  the  office  of  the  Carmelites,  which  I  bought  at  Clarendon  Street  monastery  and 
chapel  in  Dublin,  Mary  is  called  Maris  Stella,  Mother  of  our  Maker,  and  the  glorious  Virgin  of 
Mount  CarmeL  She  has  forty-three  names,  the  exact  number  which  I  counted  under  her  statue 
at  Loretto,  The  Gospel  of  the  Egyptians  in  the  office  is  expressly  acknowledged  in  the  following 
words,  the  heading  of  a  prayer :  The  falling  down  of  the  Egyptian  idols  at  the  approach  of  the  Son 
of  God.  And  the  Sibyls  are  quoted.  Dr.  Walsh,  in  his  lately  published  Travels,  says,  that  the 
Greeks  call  her  Dei-para  and  Panayia.  This  last  word  is  worthy  of  observation  j  it  is  not 
unlike  the  Pandsea,  the  daughter  of  Cristna, 

Thus  far  I  had  written  when  the  fact  of  the  island  of  Meroe  having  its  name  from  mount  Meru, 
and  also  from  the  name  of  the  Virgin,  occurred  to  me  as  something  singular,  and  I  was  for  the  first 
time  induced  to  apply  to  my  Hebrew  Bible  for  the  mode  of  spelling  Mount  Moriah ;  and  there, 
behold !  1  find  it  is  Maria — nno  Mrie.  When  formerly  I  discussed  the  meaning  of  the  Meru  of 
India,  (Vol.  I.  pp.  355,  356,)  I  observed,  that  its  meaning  was  not  known  ;  but  now  I  think  we 
have  found  it,  in  the  name  which  we  found  in  Siam — Maria — and  it  is  the  Mount  of  Maria,  or  of 
Maia— called  also,  in  Western  Syria  as  in  Pegu,  Zian,  and,  as  Josephus  says,  converted1  into 
Jerusalem,  which,  he  also  says,  was  built  by  Melchizedek,  and  that  it  was  before  called  Salem. 
All  this  probably  happened  after  Abraham  sanctified  it  by  the  Yajna  sacrifice  of  the  Lamb. 

Mr.  Taylor  goes  so  far  as  to  suppose  that  our  Gospel  histories  are  the  very  Scriptures  of  the 
Therapeutse  or  Essenes  much  corrupted  :  but  I  think  in  this  he  must  be  mistaken,  and  that  they 
are  what  the  learned  Christians  of  the  Manichseari  sect  said  of  them,  and  what  they  have  every 


Lib  vi.  Cap,  x, 


THE    CARMELITES   PYTHAGOREANS. 


appearance  of  being,  viz,,  a  collection  of  traditions  or  histories,  made  by  such  men  as  Papias, 
Hegisippus,  &c.,  in  their  travels,  taken  from  the  Essenean  school,  which  they  found  among  the 
devotees  at  the  Essenean  settlements  above  named,  and  to  which  St.  Paul  addressed  his  letters. 
They  were  probably  part  of  their  Scriptures.  Strangers  would  probably  not  succeed  in  obtaining 
the  whole,  but  only  detached  parts,  which  had  become  known  out  of  the  monasteria  —  out  of  the 
crypts.  And  it  seems  almost  certain  from  their  titles  —  Gospel  according  to  Matthew,  &c.,  and 
other  circumstances,  that  they  were  never  originally  intended  to  be  the  actual  writings  of  the 
Apostles,  but  only  on  account  of  what  it  was  believed  that  they  had  taught  respecting  Jesus. 
Thus  they  are  rescued  from  the  charge,  otherwise  plausibly  brought  against  them,  of  being  forge- 
ries. They  are,  in  fact,  what  their  titles  call  them,  accounts  of  the  doctrines  which  Matthew  or 
Luke  was  supposed  to  have  taught  respecting  Jesus  3  but  anonymously  of  course.  But  of  this  I 
shall  have  much  to  say  hereafter.  This  scheme  seems  to  me  to  dovetail  into  all  the  other  his- 
torical accounts.  We  know  Pythagoras  was  one  of  the  Essenes  or  Therapeutae,  that  he  got  his 
learning  and  morality,  identically  that  of  Jesus,  either  in  Egypt  or  on  Mount  Carmel,  where  he 
long  resided,1  or  in  Babylon,  or  still  more  to  the  East.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  supply  the  only  con- 
necting link  wanting,  between  the  East  and  the  West. 

Certainly  the  fact  noticed  by  Mr.  R.  Taylor,  that  Philo  described  the  Essenes  before  Christ  was 
born,  and  that  Eusebius  has  shewn  that  those  very  Essenes,  so  described,  were  Christians, 
at  once  proves  that  the  Christians  of  his  sect  were  not  the  followers  of  the  man  who  lived  and 
preached  in  the  time  of  Tiberius.  I  do  not  see  how  the  evidence  of  Eusebius  is  to  be  disputed  : 
besides,  his  evidence  is  confirmed  by  the  work  of  Philo,  which  we  have  and  can  refer  to,  in  its 
general  character  and  account  of  the  Essenes,  and  which  completely  bears  out  Eusebius.2  Be- 
tween the  accounts  of  Philo  and  Josephus,  3  I  think  there  will  not  be  found  a  greater  variation, 
than  under  the  circumstances  may  be  expected.  The  order  may  have  considerably  changed 
between  the  time  of  Philo  and  Eusebius,  and  as  it  was  his  object  to  shew  that  they  were  Christians, 
we  may  safely  give  a  man,  who  had  no  regard  for  truth  on  other  occasions,  credit  for  a  little 
freedom  of  expression,  to  say  the  least,  on  this. 

The  early  Protestants,  having  taken  a  dislike  to  monastic  institutions,  have  exerted  all  their 
ingenuity  to  persuade  their  followers,  that  the  monastic  order  did  not  arise  until  about  the  year 
£00,  when  they  pretend  it  was  instituted  by  one  Antonius.  Their  object  in  fixing  on  so  late  a 
date  is,  by  this  means,  to  strengthen  their  argument  that,  from  the  lateness  of  its  origin,  it  cannot 
be  an  uncorrupted  Christian  institution,  but  that  it  was  one  of  the  numerous  corruptions  of  the 
scarlet  whore  of  Babylon,  as  they  courteously  call  the  Romish  Church,4  The  falsity  of  this  is  at 
once  proved  by  the  fact,  that  Origen,  who  was  born  about  the  year  180,  emasculated  himself, 
which  shews  in  what  estimation  celibacy  was  held  in  his  time.  In  order  to  be  a  monk,  it  was 
not  necessary,  in  his  day,  to  attach  himself  to  any  order  of  monks,  because  there  was  then  only 
one  order.  But  the  account  given  of  him  by  the  learned  Gale  is  quite  enough  to  shew  what  he 
was. 


1  Taylor's  Translation  of  Jamblicus,  Chap  iii. 

8  These  Essenean  Chi  litmus  were  probably  X^$-'«w. 

3  In  the  woiks  of  Philo  not  a  \vord  is  said  about  Jesus  Chribt,  nor  about  his  works,    (Bryant  on  the  Logos,  p  17.; 
But  he  ireats  at  large  on  the  Logos.    Philo  appears  often  to  have  visited  Jerusalem.    It  has  been  piovcd,  against 
Mangey  and  others,  that  he  lived  at  the  time  of  Christ     When  Philo  speaks  of  being  old,  though  he  refeis  to  himself 
at  the  time  of  writing,  he  is  describing  the  embassy  to  Caligula  many  years  before. 

4  For  they  never  hesitate  to  employ  the  weapons  of  abuse  and  sarcastic  ridicule  against  their  opponents,  which  if  any 
person  retorts  upon  them  he  is  instantly  sent  to  Newgate  or  some  other  prison  for  three  or  four  years. 


BOOK  II,    CHAPTER  I.   SECTION  2,  47 

"  He  gave  the  first  lines  to  all  mystic  theology,  by  turning  all  scriptures,  even  the  most  plain, 
"  into  allegories,  according  to  the  Platonic  mode. — He  was  the  first  founder  of  monastic  life, 
"  abstinences,  and  austerities.  He  emasculated  himself,  that  is,  extinguished  virility,  thereby  to 
"  preserve  chastity.  He  understood  those  precepts  of  our  Lord,  against  having  two  coats,  shoes, 
"  and  making  provision  for  the  morrow,  in  a  literal  sense,  as  belonging  to  all  Christians  :  and 
"  thence  affected  voluntary  poverty^  as  the  monks  of  Egypt,  his  successors.  He  abstained  from 
fc  necessary  food,  as  the  Pythagoreans  and  Popish  monks  :  whereby  he  endangered  his  health. 
"  He  affected  superstitious  sanctity  and  severities,  abbtaining  from  necessary  sleep,  lying  on  the 
"  ground,  &c.,  as  monks."  In  addition  to  the  above  list  of  errors,  Mr.  Gale,  as  descriptive  of 
another  error,  adds  the  following  sentence,  a  lamentable  proof  of  the  pernicious  effects  of  what  is 
called  religion,  even  upon  the  greatest  learning  and  talent:  "  He  held  human  merits,  and  justifica- 
"  tion  by  works,  placing  man's  satisfactions,  tears,  contrition,  and  other  good  works,  as  the  causes 
"  of  remission  of  sins." 1  It  is  quite  shocking  to  think  into  what  pernicious  absurdities  the 
corrupt  or  doubtful  passages  in  those  books  have  drawn  even  both  good  and  learned  men,  as  the 
examples  of  both  Origen  and  Gale  prove. 

Bochart  against  Feron,*  says,  "That  the  law  or  canon  of  celibacy  is  the  doctrine  of  devils, 
"  1  Tim.  iv.  1,  3,  which  was  well  nigh  established  throughout  Paganism,  when  Christ  came  into 
"  the  world.  There  were  some  priests  who  castrated  or  gelded  themselves,  as  those  of  Cybele,  or 
"  of  Phrygia,  who  were  called  Galli  and  Archigalli :  and  the  Megabyzes  or  Megalobyzes,  priests  of 
"  Diana  at  Ephesus,  and  the  Therophantes  at  Athens.  Li  brief,  the  celibacy  of  priests  was  in  such 
"  esteem  among  the  Pagans,  that  jSSneas,  in  ffirgil,  (2Ein.  Lib.  vi.5)  passing  through  the  Elysian 
"fields,  which  they  made  to  be  fwradise,  saw  no  other  priests  there,  but  such  as  had  passed  their  life 
"  in  celibacy.  There  has  been  also  a  number  of  philosophers  who  have  contributed  to  this  error. 
"  This  was  one  of  the  superstitions  which  Pythagoras  brought  out  of  Egypt,  whence  returning 
£  unto  Greece,  he  forbade  marriage  to  those  of  his  sect,  and  constituted  a  cloister  of  nuns,  over 
"  which  he  placed  his  daughter.  Plato  held  the  same  opinion,  as  also  Heraclitus,  and  Demo- 
"  critus,  and  Zeno,  the  prince  of  the  Stoics,  who  never  approached  to  a  woman.  By  which/' 
says  Gale,  cf  It  is  apparent  that  Antichrist's  prohibition  of  marriage  and  monastic  constitutions 
"  or  canons  are  but  cwroxp;<n£,  an  imitation  of  the  Pagan  celibacy  and  monastic  rules :  that  the 
"  Popish  nuns  are  but  imitations  or  apes  of  the  Pythagorean  nuns."3 

The  Pythagoreans  were  divided  in  their  colleges  into  novices  and  perfect.  They  affected  a 
superstitious  silence ;  they  enjoyed  all  things  in  common ;  they  called  their  college  KGJVQ&OV, 
a  community,  as  the  monks  and  nuns  call  theirs  Ccenobium,  They  had  their  fasts  the  same  as 
the  Egyptian  priests,  and  the  Carthusians  and  Praemonstrarits.  They  had  the  same  white  gar- 
ments. They  had  the  same  severities  or  discipline,  mortifications,  and  purifications.  They 
were  divided  into  contemplative  and  active,  the  same  as  the  Egyptian  priests  and  the  monks.4 

The  great  and  striking  similarity  between  the  doctrines  of  the  Essenes,  of  Jesus,  and  of  Pytha- 
goras, amounts  almost  to  proof  of  the  identity  of  the  systems. 

Pythagoras  maintained  the  existence  of  one  Supreme  God,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  a 
state  of  future  rewards  and  punishments.  These  sentiments  were  common  to  him  and  almost  all 
the  ancient  philosophers.  He  probably  believed  in  the  existence  of  a  great  number  of  created 


»  Gale's  Court  of  Gent.  Vol.  III.  Book  ii.  Chap.  i.  pp.  134, 135. 

*  Part  iiu  Chap.  xxv.  S,  4,  Art.  L 

8  Gale's  Court  of  Gent.  Vol.  III.  Book  ii.  Chap.  ii.  Sect.  9,  p.  21 2.  *  See  ibid.  Sect,  J,  pp.  150, 15L 


*0  THE   CARMELITES   PYTHAGOREANS. 

beings,  superior  to  man  in  their  natures  and  attributes,  but  in  every  way  inferior  to  God  their 
Creator,  Under  different  names  they  answer  exactly  to  the  angels  of  the  Brahmins,  the  Magi, 
the  Jews,  the  Essenes,  and  the  Christians.  The  morality  which  he  taught  was  in  a  very  high 
degree  refined  and  good.  In  it  is  to  be  found,  I  believe,  every  doctrine  for  which  the  Christian 
religion  has  been  so  much  celebrated  by  its  admirers.  The  truth  of  this  assertion  may  be  seen  in 
almost  every  page  of  Jamblicus's  Life  of  Pythagoras.  The  examples  are  far  too  numerous  to 
recite  here. 

Pythagoras  taught,  and  his  followers  maintained,  the  absolute  equality  of  property,  all  their 

worldly  possessions  being  brought  into  a  common  store.    They  separated  themselves  from  the 

rest  of  mankind,  and  lived  in  buildings  called  monasteria  or  monasteries,  and  were  themselves  called 

KOWO&OJ  or  Coenobites,   By  this  name  of  Coenobites  they  are  said  to  have  been  known  at  Crotona 

in  Italy,  which  might  induce  a  suspicion  that  monasteries  were  founded  in  Italy  much  earlier  than 

has  been  generally  supposed. l     Before  proselytes  were  admitted  into  the  society  they  were 

obliged  to  keep  a  long  silence,  and  to  serve  a  tedious  noviciate ;  and  they  took  the  three  celebrated 

vows,  tria  vota  substantiality  taken  by  all  monks,  of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedience.     His 

followers  ate  no  flesh  meat,  nor  drank  wine,  and  though  he  sacrificed  to  Apollo  or  the  Sun  at 

Delos,  it  was  at  the  altar  where  no  blood  was  bhed,  and  with  thanksgivings  only.     He  held  the 

doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis,  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same,  as  it  was  held  by  the  Brahmins, 

the  Persians,  many  of  the  Greeks,  the  Manichees,  and  many  of  the  early  orthodox  Christian 

fathers. 

His  followers  were  divided  into  two  classes,  one  called  Pythagoreans,  the  other  Pythagorists, 
The  former  only  had  their  possessions  in  common,  and  are  what  answer  to  those  amongst  the 
Christians  called  elect  or  perfect— who  were,  in  short,  the  monks  and  nuns.  They  rose  before 
daylight,  and  though  strictly  worshipers  of  one  God,  they  always  paid  a  certain  adoration  to 
the  sun  at  his  rising.  Pythagoras,  as  well  as  his  disciple  Plato,  considered  the  soul  to  be  confined 
in  the  body  as  a  certain  kind  of  punishment,  and  that  old  age  was  not  to  be  considered  with 
reference  to  an  egress  from  the  present  life,  but  to  the  beginning  of  a  blessed  life  in  future.2 

Of  all  the  Greeks,  I  apprehend  Pythagoras  was  the  most  learned.    It  cannot  be  supposed  that 
he  would  spend  so  many  years  in  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  and  Babylon,  in  study,  without  knowing  the 
languages  of  these  nations.     He  is  said  to  have  been  the  person  who  discovered  the  demon- 
stration of  the  forty-seventh  proposition  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid,  which,  if  true,  was  of  itself 
sufficient  to  immortalize  him,     But  I  am  rather  inclined  to  think  that  he  discovered  it  not  by 
meditation,  but  by  travel  amongst  the  nations  of  the  East,  who  understood  and  who  taught  him 
the  true  theory  of  the  motions  of  the  earth  and  planetary  bodies,  and  who,  I  believe,  understood 
the  qualities  of  the  loadbtone,  *  the  art  of  making  gun-powder,  telescopes,  Sec.,  &c.,  and  who 
were  far  more  learned  than  the  Greeks  were  at  any  time*    I  believe  the  Greeks  were  as  inferior 
to  the  oriental  nations  in  real  learning,  as  they  were  superior  to  them  in  poetry  and  the  fine  arts. 
I  beg  the  reader  to  look  back  to  what  has  been  said  (Vol.  L  pp.  150,  &c.)  respecting  the  cir- 
cumstances related  of  Pythagoras  in  the  early  part  of  his  life,  to  the  same  also  in  the  life  of 
Cristna,  &c ,  (ibid.  pp.  129,  et  seq.,)  and,  coolly  divesting  his  mind,  as  far  as  possible,  from  pre- 
judice, and  from  all  angry  feeling,  caused  by  his  early  opinions  being  rudely  assailed,  consider 
whether  it  be  possible  that  such  similarity  in  two  histories  could  take  place  by  accident.     I  beg 

1  Jamblicus's  Life  of  Pythag  by  Taylor,  Chap.  v.  p.  18.  «  Vide  ibid,  passim. 

3  See  Parkburst's  Lexicon,  Cooke  on  Stonehenge,  Stukeley's  Stonehenge,  and  Pateographia,  and  Drummond  in 
the  Classical  Journal, 


BOOK    II.    CHAPTER   I.    SECTION   2.  49 

him  to  ask,  whether  it  be  possible  that  the  effect  could  be  produced  by  any  cause  except  that  of 
one  copying  after  the  other — that  of  the  later  copying  after  the  earlier.    Thomas  Burnet  says, 1 
"  Refert  Alexander  de  Symbolis  Pythagoricis,  Taharaiv  xou  lBpa%[Aava)V  awfimwai  rov  IluS-ayo- 
"  pav.*      Hos  igitur  Galatarum  Philosophos,  Druidas,  audivit,  non  docuit,  Pythagoras."    That 
Pythagoras  was  a  Carmelite  see  Mosheim.3 

Mr.  Maurice  seems  to  consider  it  of  great  consequence  that  the  immaculate  conception  of  Jesus 
by  his  mother,  a  virgin,  is  very  different  from  the  birth  of  Cristna,  who  had  seven  or  eight  elder 
brothers.  But  he  overlooks  the  fact  that  Jesus  is  said  to  have  had  almost  as  many. 4  Now  this 
seems  to  me  of  very  little  consequence.  I  do  not  suppose  that  one  story  was  exactly  copied  from 
the  other — that  at  any  time  a  copyist  or  transcriber  went  to  the  Hindoo  books  and  systematically 
extracted  what  he  thought  necessary  to  form  a  new  religion.  No,  indeed  !  I  consider  the  account 
of  the  Manichaeans  to  be  the  truth — that  these  books  were  formed  from  scraps  of  traditions 
collected  by  the  early  fathers,  some  here,  some  there,  as  they  happened  to  find  them  in  their 
journeys,  which  it  is  well  known  that  they  took  into  the  Eastern  countries,  in  search  of  the  true 
Gospel.  Thus  some  parts  would  be  as  we  find  them — Indian,  some  Persian,  some  Egyptian,  &c,, 
&c.,  jumbled  together,  forming,  after  undergoing  the  corrections  #hich  I  have  before  described,  the 
mass  which  we  now  possess — after  all  their  corrections  in  a  considerable  degree  confused  and 
irreconcileable.  Thus  we  find  that  from  India  came  the  murder  of  the  innocents,  &c.,  &c.  5  from 
all  quarters  of  the  Heathen  world  came  the  Trinity,  the  execution  of  the  Saviour,  the  Lord  Sol, 
the  lao,  born  at  the  winter  solstice,  triumphing  over  the  powers  of  hell  and  darkness,  and  rising 
to  light  and  immortality  at  the  vernal  equinox  j  from  the  Egyptian,  and  perhaps  Eleusinian,  mys- 
teries, the  worship  of  the  Virgin  and  Child ;  and,  from  the  history  of  the  Pythagoras,  the  imma- 
culate conception,  and  the  several  particulars  which  the  reader  has  seen,  are  common  both  to  him 
and  Jesus,  in  the  early  parts  of  their  lives. 

That  the  Christian  Hellenistic  Jewish  fathers  should  have  searched  for  the  origin  of  their 
religion  in  the  East,  will  not  surprise  any  one  who  observes  that  the  Greeks  found  in  the  same 
quarter  all  their  astronomy  and  their  mythological  fables,  as  may  be  seen  well  developed  every 
where  in  the  Hist.  Hind,  by  Mr.  Maurice. 

On  the  subject  of  the  Essenes,  who  were'  nothing  but  Pythagoreans,  Thomas  Burnet  says, 
u  Huic  dissertation!  de  Judaeis  fineru  imposuero,  venit  mihi  in  mentem  Essenorum  sive  Essseorum, 
tc  pervetustae,  celebrisque  olira  sectae,  apud  Judaeos  :  qui  priscorum  Philosophorum  speciern  pree 
"  se  ferebant,  ipsosque  Brachmanas  institutis  et  vitae  ratione  imitar;  videbantur. 5  Horum 
"  meminerunt  authores  varii.  Plinius,  subridens,  ex  ^?cenitentibus  et  perteesis  humanse  vitas 
"  ccetum  ilium  compositum  ait,  neque  unquam  defecisse  per  aliquot  annorum  millia,  licet  ayujw 
66  XOLI  a(rw8<n<x.fQV.  «  Gens  sola,  inquit,  Esseni,  et  in  toto  orbe,  prater  caeteras,  mira.  Sine 
"  *  ull&  foamink,  omni  venere  abdicata,  sine  pecuni£,  soci&  Palmarum.  In  diem  ex  sequo  conve- 
"  '  narum  turba  renascitur,  frequentantibus,  quos  vit&  fessos,  ad  mores  eorum  fortunae  fluctus 
**  *  agitat.  Ita  per  saeculorum  millia  (incredibile  dicta)  gens  seterna  est,  in  quit  nemo  nascitur* 
"  *  Tarn  foecunda  illis  aliorurn  vitae  pcenitentia  est.?  Argute  dictum  si  minus  vere.  Horum  phi- 
"  losophorum  vivam  imaginem  depinxit  Philo  Judaeus  :  vitamque  eorum  exhibuit,  illi  simillimam 
"  quam  duxerunt  olim  in  Paradiso  innocui  parentes :  et  nos  iterum  ducturi  sumus,  Deo  volente,  iu 
*c  nov£  terra"  futuri.  Onerosum  esset  totum  Philonis  de  h^,c  re  sermonem  adducere :  sed,  quod 


1  Arch  Phil.  Cap.  Si.  p,  8,  4to.  a  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  Vol.  I.  p,  304. 

:  Hist.  Vol.  Ill,  Cent.  XII.  Ch.  il  p.  75.  *  Matt.  xiii.  55,  56  $  Mark  vL  3.          s  Josephus,  cont.  Ap,  Lib.  i 

VOL.   II.  B 


50  THE   CARMELITES   PYTHAGOREANS, 

"  hoc  spectat  maximfc  quid  de  philosophic  sensermt,  ita  panels  enarrat.  '  Philosophise  partem 
"  c  Logicam,  ut  parandee  virtuti  non  necessarian*,  relinquunt  verborum  captatoribus.  Physicam 
** c  ver&,  ut  humano  captu  majorem,  rerum  sublimium  curiosis  :  e&  parte  except&,  qute  de  exis- 
"  c  tentii  Dei,  rerumque  ortu,  philosophatur.  In  moral!  autem  se  strenue  exercent/  &c.  Pauca 
"  habent,  ut  vides,  in  philosophic  naturali,  sed  gravissima,  capita :  de  Deo  nempe,  mundique 
"  ortu.  Sed  qu&  ratione  mundi  originem  exposuerint,  aut  quatenus  a  Mose  discesserint,  non 
"  indicat  Philo.  Neque  plura  suppetunt,  quod  sciam,  apud  authores,  Essenorum  dogmata 
"physica:  mod6  ea  adjunxeris,  quse,  ex  illorum  mente  tradit  Josephus,  de  auimarum  immorta- 
"litate  et  futuris  paradisis,  Reliqua  in  suis  libris  sacris,  quorum  ille  meminit,1  occuluerunt: 
"  et  quserenda  sunt  maxime  apud  Brachmanas.  Apud  Brachmanas  dico :  cum  illorum  esse  pro- 
"  paginem  Essenos,  ex  Clearcho  notarit  Josephus.2  Tta  enim  Clearchum  intelligo,  non  Judaeos 
"  in  genere,  sed  scholam  Essenicam  derivatam  esse  a  BrachmaniclL  Quod  ex  cognatis  moribus  et 
ts  institutis  non  mal£  arguitur,"3 

This  passage  of  Burnet's  suggests  several  very  important  observations,  I  was  not  a  little 
gratified  to  find  that  the  close  relation  between  the  Hindoos  and  the  most  respectable  of  all  the 
Jewish  sects,  of  which  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  member,  that  of  the 
Essenes,  had  been  observed  by  this  very  learned  man  almost  a  hundred  years  ago,  before  the  late 
blaze  of  light  from  the  East  had  shone  upon  us.  What  would  he  have  said  had  he  lived  till  now  ? 
I  think  from  the  tria  vota  sitbstantialia  being  common  both  to  the  Essenes  and  the  Samaneans 
of  Porphyry,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  latter  were  correctly  oriental  Essenes, — Their  history 
must  have  been  well  known  in  the  time  of  Pliny :  and  his  observation  of  their  continuance  per 
millia  sasculorum  decidedly  proves  their  existence,  if  proof  were  wanting,  long  before  the  time 
of  Christ)  therefore  they  could  not  be  merely  Christian  monks.  They  could  be  no  other  than 
Sophees. 

I  cannot  help  entertaining  a  suspicion  that  the  Samaneans  of  Porphyry  and  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus,  the  Buddhists  or  Brachmans,  as  they  were  called,  the  Chaldaeans,  confessed  by  Buruet 
to  be  only  a  sect,4  the  Essenes,  and  the  Druides,  were,  in  fact,  all  orders  of  monks.  Perhaps 
they  were  originally  one  order,  but  in  long  periods  of  time  split  it  into  separate  communities,  as 
we  have  them  in  Europe— but  all  having  the  same  vows  of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedience — vows 
which,  in  fact,  reduce  all  monks  to  one  order  or  genus, 

*e  Constat  autem  apud  has  gentes  (Cdtas)  viguisse  ab  omni  sevo  philosophos,  sive  hominum 
*'  ordinem,  nomine,  studiis,  et  vitse  institute,  a  vulgo,  aliisque  distinctum,  Dicti  sunt  ab  omnibus 
"  Druidse  vel  Druides :  Semnothei  etiam ;  aliisque  nominibus,  quge  nil  faciunt  ad  rem  nostram, 
"  distingui  solent." 5 

Epiphanus  bays  that  there  were  TWENTY  heresies  before  Christ.  It  is  curious,  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  there  is,  much  truth  in  the  observation,  for  most  of  the  rites  and  .doctrines  of  the 
Christians  of  all  sects  exibted  before  the  time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.6 

It  is  the  policy  of  the  present  Christians  to  reduce  the  number  of  heresies  as  much  as  possible. 
But  the  fact  cannot  be  disputed,  that  what  were  called  Christian  heresies  existed  in  great 
numbers  before  the  birth  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as  asserted  by  Epiphanius  and  Philaster,  and 
quoted  generally  with  approbation  by  Eusebius :  although  he  differs  from  them  in  some  points, 
particularly  as  to  which  of  the  sects  preceded  Christianity.  It  seems  singular  enough,  however, 
that  these  good  people  do  not  perceive  that  it  proves  the  actual' existence  of  two  Christianities, 


»  Bel,  Jucl  Lib.  ii,  p.  12.  *  Cont.  Ap.  Lib  i.  3  Arch.  Phil.  Cap,  vii.  pp.  69,  70,  4to. 

4  Arch.  Phil,  Cap,  iv,  p.  20.  *  Ib.  Cap.  ii.  p.  7.  6  See  Lardner's  Hist.  Her,  Book  i.  Sect.  5. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  I.    SECTION  3,  51 

But  I  think  my  reader  who  recollects  what  has  been  said  of  the  youth  of  Larissa  in  the  first 
volume, l   will  not  be  much  surprised  at  this. 

The  conduct  of  the  first  Christian  Emperor  Constantine,  was  very  singular.  He  was  both 
Christian  and  Pagan.  He  affected  to  be  descended  from  Helen  the  female  generative  principle, 
he  kept  the  Heathen  festivals  after  he  turned  Christian,  and  when  he  built  his  new  city  he  placed 
it  on  seven  hills,  making  it  as  near  as  possible  a  second  Ilium  or  new  Rome,  and  dedicated  its 
church  to  the  holy  Sophia.  I  have  little  doubt  that  if  we  could  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  subject, 
we  should  find  proof  that  he  affected  to  be  a  renewed  incarnation,  the  Paraclete  promised  by  Jesus, 
the  tenth  Avatar,  and  the  renewer  of  the  empire  of  ancient  Rome,  in  the  last  cycle.  But  it  must 
be  recollected  that  we  are  here  in  the  very  centre  of  the  aera  of  frauds,  of  every  kind,  and  that  he, 
that  is,  his  church,  was  able  to  destroy,  and  did  destroy,  every  thing  which  it  did  not  approve. 
It  could  corrupt  what  it  pleased,  and  we  scarcely  possess  a  single  writing  which  it  ordered  to  be 
destroyed,  which  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  its  power  to  effect  its  wicked  designs.  Constantine  was, 
in  fact,  both  Pagan  and  Christian  $  and  his  church,  as  I  will  now  prove,  was  more  an  union  of  the 
two,  than  a  substitution  of  one  for  the  other. 

3.  I  shall  now  proceed  to  shew,  that  the  remainder  of  what,  in  modern  times,  are  called  the 
rites  of  the  church  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  have  nothing  to  do  with  him,  and  are  only  figments  of  the 
old  Gentile  religion,  and  I  shall  begin  at  the  head,  the  Pontifex  Maximus. 

The  Roman  Pontifex  Maximus  was  called  King  of  the  Age. 2  This  was  the  same  as  Cyrus, 
A«ov  ro)V  ajrovcov.  As  endowed  with  a  portion  of  the  holy  spirit  he  was  God.  Thus  in  him 
resided  a  portion  of  the  divinity  on  earth.  It  was  from  these  mysticisms  that  the  power  of  both 
the  ancient  and  modern  chief  priests  was  derived.  How  this  Pontifex  arose  I  shall  shew  in  a 
future  page,  along  with  the  origin  of  feudal  tenures,  and  I  conceive  it  will  not  be  the  least  inte- 
rebting  part  of  my  work. 

Tertullian  calls  the  Pontifex  Maximus  KING  OF  THE  AGE.  This  is  Ba<r*Xsu$  aucw  ra>v  aicovwv 
— King  of  the  Cycles.  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus  assures  us,  that  the  Pontifices  Maxioii  had  a 
sovereign  authority  in  the  most  important  affairs,  for  to  them  was  referred  the  judgment  of  all 
causes  which  concerned  sacred  things,  as  well  those  in  which  individuals  were  concerned,  as  those 
of  the  public.  They  made  new  laws  on  their  own  authority,  as  new  occasions  called  for  them. 
They  had  the  care  of  all  sacrifices,  and  generally  of  all  the  ceremonials  of  religion.  They  had 
also  the  jurisdiction  of  all  the  officers  employed  in  the  affairs  of  religion.  They  were  the  inter- 
preters of  the  prophecies,  concerning  which  the  people  were  used  to  consult  them.  They  had 
power  lo  punish  at  their  discretion  those  who  failed  to  execute  their  commands,  according  to  the 
exigency  of  the  case  j  but  were  themselves  subject  to  no  other  person,  and  were  not  obliged  to 
render  an  account  either  to  the  senate  or  to  the  people.  When  the  high  priest  died  his  place  was 
filled  by  the  choice  of  the  college,  and  not  by  the  senate  or  people. 3  All  this  is  strictly  pa- 
pistical. 

Alexander  ab  Alexandro  says, 4  That  the  sovereign  Pontiff  was  elevated  in  honour  above  all  others. 
The  people  had  as  much  veneration  for  his  dignity  as  for  that  of  the  king's.  He  had  his  lictors 
and  guards,  his  peculiar  chair  and  litter,  the  same  as  the  consuls :  he  alone  had  the  power  of 
ascending  to  the  capitol  in  a  chariot.  He  presided  and  ruled  in  the  sacred  college  over  all  the 
other  pontiffs  :  the  augurs,  the  priests,  and  the  vestal  virgins,  all  obeyed  him  :  he  had  the  power 
of  chastising  them  at  his  pleasure.  He  governed  according  to  his  pleasure  all  sacred  things. 

1  Pp.  571—573,  582,  583,  786,  78?.  *  Basnage,  Book  iii.  Chap,  xxiil 

3  Dion*  Halicar.  Ant.  Horn*  Lib,  ii,  ,•  also  Livy  in  his  Life  of  Nuraa,  Lib.  i.  *  Genial.  Dierum,  Lib.  ii. 


52  PONTIFEX  MAXIMUS. 

He  ordered  on  what  altars,  to  what  Gods,  by  what  hostise,  victims,  on  what  days  and  in  what 
temples  the  sacrifices  should  be  made :  he  fixed  the  feasts  and  the  fasts,  when  it  was  permitted  to 
the  people  to  work  and  when  it  was  forbidden.  If  this  be  compared  with  the  Papal  powers  it 
will  be  found  in  every  thing  to  agree.  The  Canonists  maintain  that  the  Pope  is  not  subject  to 
any  human  law  ;  that  he  cannot  be  judged  either  by  the  emperor  or  by  the  clergy  collectively, 
neither  by  the  kings  nor  by  the  people ;  that  it  is  necessary  to  salvation  to  believe,  that  all 
creatures  are  subject  to  him  5  that  as  the  Sun  is  said  to  be  lord  of  the  planets,  so  the  Pope  is  the 
father  of  all  dignities. l 

Innocent  the  Third  called  himself  Vicarius  Jesu  Christi,  successor  Petri  Christus  domini,  Deus 
Pharaonis,  citra  Deum,  ultra  hominem,  minor  Deo,  major  homine.2  Platina,  in  his  Life  of  Paul 
the  Second,  says,  "  I  and  others  being  cited  before  the  Pope  appealed  to  the  judges,  when 
te  regarding  me  with  furious  eyes,  he  said,  *  How  dare  you  speak  to  me  of  judges  ?  Ne  sais-tu 
"  (  pas  que  j'ay  tout  le  droit  dans  le  cofFret  de  ina  poitrine  ?  I  speak  the  word  and  each  quits  his 
"  c  place  according  to  my  will.  I  am  Pope :  it  is  permitted  to  me  to  chastise  or  to  approve  of  all 
"  *  others  according  to  my  will/'*  This  is  confirmed  by  Baronius  in  his  remonstrance  to  the  city 
of  Venice.3  "  Whence  comes  it,**  he  says,  "that  you  dare  to  judge  the  Judge  of  all,  whom  no 
"  council  legitimately  assembled  has  dared  to  judge ;  him  from  whom  the  universal  counsels  take 
"  their  authority,  and  without  whose  fiat  they  cannot  be  general  councils  or  be  legally  convoked, 
"  nor  the  canons  which  they  ordain  have  any  authority  ?"  In  short,  Baronius  shews  that  the 
conformity  of  the  modern  to  the  ancient  Pontiffs,  called  kings  of  the  sacred  affairs,  is  as  close  as 
possible,  even  to  the  most  trifling  things,  such  as  not  being  expected  to  salute  any  person  or  to 
uncover  his  head,  but  that  he  was  used  to  wear  the  same  purple  robes  as  kings,  and  a  crown  of 
gold  on  his  head. 

As  I  have  shewn,  the  Pontiffs  had  the  power  of  regulating  all  festivals,  and,  in  short,  the  whole 
calendar.  Thus  Julius  Caesar,  in  quality  of  Pontifex  Maximus,  reformed  the  calendar,  and  in  the 
same  manner  it  was  reformed  again  by  the  Pontifex  Maximus— Pope  Gregory  the  Thirteenth. 

Cicero,  concerning  the  Pagan  Augurs,  says,  "  No  order  of  true  religion  passes  over  the  law 
€C  concerning  the  description  of  priests. 

"  For  some  have  been  instituted  for  the  business  of  pacifying  the  Gods/' 
<e  To  preside  at  sacred  ceremonies. 
et  Others  to  interpret  the  predictions  of  the  prophet. 
se  Not  of  the  many,  lest  they  should  be  infinite. 

"  But  that  none  beside  the  College  should  understand  those  predictions  which  had  been  publicly 
"  recognized. 

"  For  augury,  or  the  power  of  foretelling  future  events,  is  the  greatest  and  most  excellent  thing 
"  in  the  republic,  and  naturally  allied  to  authority. 

"  Nor  do  thus  I  think,  because  I  am  an  augur  myself;  but  because  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
66  us  to  think  so. 

**  For,  if  the  question  be  of  legal  right,  what  is  greater  than  the  power  to  put  away  from  the 

"  highest  governments  their  right  of  holding  counsels  [councils  ?]  and  issuing  decrees  ;  or  to  abolish 

"  them  when  holden  f    What  more  awful,  than  for  any  thing  undertaken,  to  be  done  away,  if  but 

"  one  augur  hath  said  otherwise  ? 

"  What  more  magnificent  than  to  be  able  to  decree,  that  the  supreme  governors  should  resign 


'  Extrav.  de  Concess.  III.  Praeb.  C.  Sedes  Apost,  in  Glossa  Dist.  19,  c. 
•  Namrod,  Vol.  III.  p.  508.  s  Judicum  Universorum. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  I.    SECTION  3.  53 

*'  their  magistracy?  What  more  religious  than  to  give  or  not  to  give  the  right  of  treating  or 
"  transacting  business  with  the  people '  What  than  to  annul  a  law  if  it  hath  not  been  duly 
"  passed^— and  for  nothing  that  hath  been  done  by  the  government,  either  at  home  or  abroad,  to 
"  be  approved  by  any  one,  without  their  authority  ?" 1 

The  present  Roman  hierarchy  is  an  exact  copy  of  the  hierarchy  of  the  Gentiles,  as  it  is  also 
given  by  Plutarch,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  originally  came  to  the  Etruscans  from  the  Ombri  and 
the  Eastern  nations.  Gale  says,  that  "  The  Romans  made  Romulus  a  Flamen ;  which  was  a 
"  sort  of  priesthood  so  excelling  in  the  Roman  sacred  things,  (witness  the  Apex,)  that  they  had 
"  only  three  Flamens  instituted  to  the  three  Gods :  the  Diale  to  Jupiter :  the  Martiale  to  Mars  : 
"  the  Quirinale  to  Romulus.  Ludovicus  Vives  on  this  place,  explaining  what  this  Flamen 
"  dedicated  to  Romulus  was,  tells  us,  €  That  among  the  orders  of  priests,  Numa  Pompilius  made 
"  '  some,  which  he  called  Flamens  :  whose  chief  ensign  was  a  HAT,  as  the  bishops  now,  wherein 
"  *  there  was  a  thread  of  white  wool:  whence  they  were  called  Filamines,  from  filalanae.* — This 
"  Apex,  the  Romans  gave  to  none  but  their  chiefest  priests,  as  now  the  Mitres.  So  Lucan,  Et 
"  tollens  Apicem  generoso  vertice  flamen."  Here,  as  Gale  says, 2  very  truly,  is  the  bishop,  the 
proto-flamen,  and  the  mitre  is  the  apex;  and  to  complete  the  parallel,  there  is  the  Pontifex 
Maximus  in  each  case — the  Pope  assuming  to  himself  that  epithet  of  dignity  in  his  public  titles. 
The  hat  of  the  flamen  is  the  hat  of  the  cardinal  in  his  scarlet  robes :  but  I  shall  say  more  on 
this  hereafter. 

The  Pontifex  Maximus  had  under  him  a  regular  gradation  of  priestly  officers,  precisely  like 
those  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  the  moderns — the  Pope.  He  had,  in  the  first  place,  his  college 
of  high-priests,  of  whom  his  council  was  composed,  with  whom  he  deliberated  concerning  im- 
portant affairs.  To  answer  to  this,  the  Pope  has  his  cardinals.  The  Pontifex  Maximus  had  also 
persons  called  highnesses,3  who  answered  to  the  Primates,  the  Archbishops,  and  the  Bishops : 
he  had  also  lesser  ones,  who  answered  to  the  Parsons  and  Curates  of  the  Pop£,  and  were  called 
Curione$9  whence  comes  our  word  Curate.  He  had  also  a  number  of  Flamens,  that  is  to  say, 
(Prcstres,)  priests,  who  assisted  in  the  offices  of  the  church  as  at  this  day,4  The  Abb£  Marolles 
confesses  the  conformity,  including  the  Vestals,  who  are  the  Nuns. 

The  ancients  had  an  order  of  priests  called  Parasiti  or  Parasites.  These  answered  correctly 
to  our  modern  chaplains. 

At  first  the  Pontifex  Maximus  did  not  interfere  with  secular  affairs ;  this  was,  I  suppose,  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  kings  who  were  priests  \  but,  by  degrees,  he  encroached  on  the  secular 
authority,  till,  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  he  had  become  so  formidable  that  the  Dictator  found  it 
necessary  to  take  the  office  himself,  and  thus  he  acquired  possession,  by  the  union  of  the  secular 
and  ecclesiastical  authority,  of  absolute  and  legal  power  \  and  the  emperors,  as  may  be  seen  from 
coins,  after  Caesar,  were  both  Pontifices  Maxim!  and  Emperors.5  The  popes  followed  most 
closely  the  footsteps  of  their  predecessors.  At  first,  they  did  not  meddle  with  secular  concerns, 
but  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  Emperors,  and  themselves  as  vassals  \  but  after  the  death 
of  Constantine  the  First,  pleading  a  gift  from  him  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  they  assumed  the 


1  De  Legibus,  Lib.  ii.  12,  apud  R,  Taylor's  Dieg.  pp.  140,141, 

*  Court  of  Gent.  Vol.  III.  Bk.  ii  Clu  ii.  pp,  224,  225.       3  Blond,  Rom,  Triumph.  Lib.  ii.  p.  31.       *  Mem,  de  Mar. 

*  The  early  kings  of  Rome  were  both  kings  and  priests,  and  when  they  were  abolished  a  chief  priest  was  retained 
with  reduced  power,  but  which  he  was  constantly  endeavouring  by  all  means  to  increase.    This  will  be  explained  in  a 
future  page. 


»4  PONTIFBX  MAXfMUS. 

;ro\vn,  which  they  yet  affect  to  wear,  never  yielding  up  their  pretension  to  it ;  for  they  hold  the 
same  doctrine  as  the  Protestant  Church  of  England — that  Nullum  Tempus  occurrit  Ecclesiae. 

The  alleged  gift  of  Italy  by  Constantiue,  is  said  by  Protestants  to  be  false.  I  am  inclined  to 
believe  it  true  :  for  nothing  could  be  too  bad  for  such  an  unprincipled  devotee  to  execute,  at  the 
point  of  death,  that  he  fancied  would  save  his  soul  from  damnation,  which  he  was  conscious  he 
deserved.  On  the  Papal  authority  Innocent  I1L  said,  "  Ecclesia  sponsa  non  nupsit  vacua3  sed 
t£  dotem  mihi  tribuit  absque  precio  preciosam,  spiritualium  plenitudinem  et  latitudinem  tempora- 
61  Hum.  In  sign um  spiritualium  contulit  mihi  Mitram.  In  signum  temporalium  dedit  mihi 
"  Corouam.  Mitram  pro  sacerdotio,  Coronatn  pro  regno,  illius  me  constituens  vicarium  qui  habet 
"  in  vestimento  et  foemore  suo  scriptum,  Rex  Reguni  et  Dominus  Domiuantiuin." ! 

The  Roman  Pontiff  had  the  name  of  Papa,  which  is  the  same  as  the  natives  of  central  Asia  gave 
to  their  principal  God  Jupiter,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  fourth  book  of  Herodotus.  He  was  also 
called  the  SOVEREIGN  Pontiff,  which  was  the  title  that  the  Pagans  gave  to  their  chief  priest* 

The  Popes  on  ascending  the  throne  always  assume  a  sacred  name.  This  is  an  exact  imitation 
of  antiquity.  All  kings  were  anointed,  to  render  them  sacred  ;  and  on  this  occasion  I  believe  they 
always  assumed  a  sacred  name,  which  had  generally,  perhaps  always,  an  astrological  allusion. 
The  high-priests  were  anointed  for  the  same  reason  both  among  the  Jews  and  Heathens.  This 
is  the  Etruscan  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  expressly  declared  to  be  so  in  the  case  of 
priests,  Though  Octavius  dared  not  to  assume  the  title  of  king,  he,  as  high-priest,  assumed  the 
sacred  title  of  Augustus — an  Egyptian  title  given  to  the  Nile — as  his  predecessor,  Julius,  had 
assumed  the  title  of  Csesar,  the  name  of  the  God  Mars.  This  is  an  exact  imitation  of  the  practice 
of  the  Hindoo  kings,  and,  indeed,  of  that  of  all  opulent  persons  in  India  who  take  a  sacred  name 
from  one  of  their  Goda.  This  is  the  custom  which  has  destroyed  all  ancient  history  by  rendering 
it  impossible  to  know  where  history  ends  and  where  religious  fable  begins. 

Sextus  V.,  in  his  bull  of  excommunication  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  in  1585,2  claims  to  possess 
power  as  successor  of  St.  Peter  from  the  Eternal,  above  all  the  princes  of  the  earth,  and  to  have 
power  to  punifeh  them  for  their  breaches  of  the  laws. 

The  Emperors,  as  Roman  Pagan  pontiffs,  claimed  the  same  power  and  exercised  it,  as  delegates 
of  the  person  described  by  the  THS  608— until  the  last  age  should  arrive.  They  established  the 
claim  attempted  to  be  set  up  by  Antiochus,  by  Syila,  and  by  Scipio  Africanus.  At  last,  Nero 
claimed  to  be  the  Tenth  Avatar.  Infinite  have  been  the  pains  of  the  priests  to  conceal  these 
things,  but  I  flatter  myself  they  have  failed. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  to  the  reader  how  very  near,  in  the  middle  ages,  the  Popes  were 
in  succeeding  in  their  claim  to  the  disposal  of  all  kingdoms.  This  is  a  fact.  We  shall  see  in  a 
future  page  the  foundation  on  which  this  claim  rested.  By  skilfully  interfering  between  the 
Royal  brutes  and  their  oppressed  subjects,  they  had  very  nearly  succeeded,  with  the  acclamations 
of  the  people,  in  establishing  their  power.  Then  Europe  would  have  been  precisely  in  the  situa- 
tion of  Tibet  at  this  moment. 

The  Roman  Emperors  and  the  Pontifices  drew  imposts  from  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  The 
Pope,  in  like  manner,  had  his  Peter's  pence,  under  which  name  all  Europe  paid  him  tribute.  It 
was  the  policy  of  the  Roman  Emperors  to  make  the  Latin  tongue  the  common  language  of  all 
nations  \  the  Popes  desired  the  same  thing — which  was  the  secret  reason  for  their  wi&hing  the 
service  always  to  be  in  Latin,  the  language  of  the  See. 
It  was  permitted  by  the  Emperors  for  any  one  to  kill  those  who  were  devoted  to  the  infernal 

1  De  Coronat  Pot.  Serm.  III.  *  HI.  Mezcray  reports  this  bull  iu  the  Life  of  Henry  III.  p.  #6?. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  I.     SECTION  3.  55 

Gods  \  this  was  exactly  imitated  by  the  Popes  who  granted  leave  to  any  person  to  kill  those  who 
were  excommunicated.  The  Emperors  and  Pagan  Pontiffs  had  habits  and  shoes  of  purple ;  their 
senators  were  clothed  in  the  same  colour,  which  they  call  trabea.  The  Pope  has  the  same  habit  and 
the  same  shoes,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  book  of  sacred  ceremonies. 1  The  Cardinals,  who  compose 
his  Senate,  and  whom  Pius  II.  called  Senators  of  the  city  of  Rome,  are  also  clothed  with  purple.2 

When  a  Pope  is  crowned,  a  triumphal  procession  takes  place  from  the  Vatican  to  the  Church 
of  the  Lateran,  during  which  the  new  Pope  throws  money  to  the  people,  precisely  as  the  Emperors 
of  old  were  accustomed  to  do  in  the  processions  on  their  coronation.  As  the  Emperors  and 
Pontiffs  were  accustomed  to  send  to  their  allies,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  their  good  offices,  a 
baton  of  ivory,  a  painted  robe,  or  similar  trifling  presents ;  so  the  Popes  send  to  kings  and  princes 
sometimes  a  rose,  sometimes  gloves,  and  sometimes  a  sacred  sword,  or  an  Agnus  Dei, 

The  Emperors  had  the  title  of  God,  Deus  or  Divus.  Virgil,  in  his  first  Eclogue,  so  calls 
Octavius,  and  Suetonius,  in  his  Life  of  Domitian,  says, 3  he  wished  when  his  commands  were  sent 
to  his  lieutenants,  that  the  words,  The  Lord  our  God  commands  it  should  be  used.  The  same, 
nearly,  was  attributed  to  the  Pope.4  "  As  there  is  only  one  God/*  says  he,  Cf  in  the  heavens, 
"  so  there  ought  to  be  one  God  only  on  earth."  5  Du  Perron,  in  his  letter  of  thanks  to  Pope 
Clement  VIII.  for  his  promotion  to  the  rank  of  Cardinal  says,  "  I  have  always  revered  your 
66  beatitude  as  God  on  earth" 

Aurelius  Victor  tells  us,  speaking  of  Diocletian,  that  the  Roman  Emperors  and  Pontiffs  were 
adored  by  the  people. 

The  last  excess  of  baseness  required  by  the  Emperors  Caligula  and  Heliogabaius  was,  the 
kissing  of  the  foot.  This  every  one  knows  is  done  continually  to  the  Pope.  Their  modern 
followers  say,  that  they  do  not  kiss  the  foot  but  the  cross,  which  is  embroidered  on  the  shoe,  A 
mere  idle  subterfuge.  Why  is  not  the  cross  placed  in  some  more  honourable  situation  ?  The 
same  reason  would  excuse  them  for  kissing  a  place  of  still  less  reverence,  which  might  be  named; 
but  it  would  hardly  be  thought  respectful  to  place  the  cross  there. 

But  the  kissing  of  the  toe  was  of  much  older  date  than  the  times  of  Caligula  and  Heliogabaius  $ 
Julius  Caesar,  in  quality  of  Pontifex  Maximus,  held  out  his  foot  to  Pompeius  Psenus  to  kiss,  in  a 
a  slipper  embroidered  with  gold,  socculo  aurato. 6  This  was  the  practice  of  the  Arch  Druid  in 
Gaul.3' 

As  many  of  the  Emperors  were  models  of  every  virtue,  so  it  cannot  be  denied  that  many 
of  the  Popes  were  most  excellent  men  :  but  that  the  parallel  might  be  complete,  as  many  of  the 
Emperors  were  the  most  detestable  of  characters,  so  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  were  fully 
equalled  by  some  of  the  Popes  in  profligacy  of  every  kind. 

The  title  of  Pontifex  Maximus  is  strictly  Heathen.  When  the  Pope  is  elected,  he  is  borne  in 
great  state  to  the  high  altar  in  St.  Peter's,  on  which  he  is  placed,  and  where  he  receives  the 
adoration  of  all  the  Cardinals. 8  This  is  a  close  copy  of  the  same  practice  of  the  Heathen  to 
their  high-priest. 9  *  And  it  appears  that  Martin  IV.  was  addressed,  "  O  lamb  of  God9  who  takest 
away  the  sins  of  the  world,  grant  us  thy  peace'9 10  The  very  words  used  in  their  service  by  the 
Carnutes  of  Gaul.,  as  we  shall  soon  see, 

In  the  ceremonies  of  initiation  into  the  mysteries  of  Samothrace  and  Eleusis,  the  novice  was 


*  Lib  t  Cap,  vi.  Sect.  I.  *  Vide  Lips,  Lib.  iv.  Cap.  ii.  de  Admir.  seu  de  Magni.  Horn* 

3  Cap.  xiii.  *  See  Froissard,  Tome  IV,  Chap.  x.  *  Deor.  I.  part.  Dist  Cap.  xcvi  satis  evidenter. 

6  del.  Spec.  Etym.  Vocab,  p.  104,  7  Ibid.  *  Vide  Eustace's  Travels. 

9  Priestley's  Hist.  Corrup.  Christ.  Vol.  IL  pp,  295, 329  ed,  1782.  10  Ib.  330, 331. 


56 


PONTIFEX   MAXI3VIUS. 


placed  on  a  throne,  and  the  initiated  formed  a  circle  and  danced  round  him  to  a  sacred  hymn 
which  they  sung.1  In  one  of  the  spurious  Gospels,  as  they  are  called,  Jesus  and  his  apostles,, 
are  said  to  have  performed  a  similar  ceremony  after  his  last  supper*  When  the  Cardinals  advance 
in  a  circle  to  the  adoration  of  the  Pope,  placed  on  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  when  again  every 
Sunday  they  draw  up  in  a  circle  round  him,  and  go  down  on  their  knees  to  him,  they  do  but  repeat 
this  ceremony.  And,  I  think,  that  although  the  novice,  after  the  performance  of  this  ceremony, 
was  not  in  reality  the  Pope,  or  head  of  the  fraternity,  yet  for  the  sake  of  admitting  him  to  the 
highest  of  the  mysteries,  he  was  supposed  to  have  filled  the  office  5  he  was  admitted  to  have  filled  it 
for  a  few  minutes— performing  some  act  of  authority  whilst  so  elevated.  I  have  reasons  for  this 
which  I  shall  not  give.  In  the  ancient  mysteries  this  was  called  Q  pawns  or  QpMi(rfJw$.  In 
imitation  of  this  our  bishops  are  enthroned—the  rite  is  called  the  enthroning.  One  of  the  hymns 
of  Orpheus  is  called  0g ovja-jtxoj. 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  abusing  Octavius  and  his  people  for  calling  him  Divus,  Augustus,  &c. 
He  was  not  called  father  of  his  country  until  late  in  life.  I  believe  this  title  of  father  of  his 
country,  or  of  Aiw  rcov  aiouttw,  was  given  to  him  because  he  was  really  thought  to  be  the  father 
of  the  future  age,  the  Genius  of  the  Ninth  Sseculum— the- Cyrus  of  his  day.  And  if  we  consider 
the  happy  state  of  the  world  during  his  loftg  reign,  no  man  ever  lived  to  whom  the  title  could  be 
more  plausibly  given. 

I  suppose  no  person  can  have  paid  much  attention  to  the  European  history  of  the  middle  ages 
without  having  observed  many  circumstances  relating  to  its  Popes  which  have  not  been  satisfac- 
torily accounted  for.  Among  them  stands  pre-eminent  the  Papal  claim  of  supremacy  over  the 
temporal  and  Germanic  imperial  authority.  The  Emperors  claimed  to  be  successors  of  the  Roman 
Emperors,  calling  themselves  kings  of  the  Romans  and  Caesars;  and  if  the  house  of  Hapsburg 
should  ever  breed  a  Napoleon,  (a  thing  not  much  to  be  feared,)  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  claim 
would  be  instantly  renewed  to  all  the  dominion  ruled  by  Augustus,  To  their  claims  as  Imperator 
or  Embratur,2  the  Roman  Pontiff  acceded,  but  to  nothing  more — only  as  Imperator  or  Dictator. 
To  the  authority  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  the  ancient  Romans,  the  Pope  had  succeeded)  and 
that  power,  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  had  obtained,  in  fact,  the  sovereign  sway.  The  triple  mitre 
or  crown  of  the  Pontiff  had,  to  ail  intents  and  purposes,  risen  above  the  single  crown  of  the  king, 
Jesus  of  Bethlehem,  who  was  foretold  by  all  the  Prophets,  had  come,  as  Buddha  and  as  Cristna 
had  come,  and  had,  through  the  medium  of  St.  Peter,  transmitted  his  authority  to  the  head  of  the 
Catholic  or  universal  church,  which  was  received  with  dutiful  submission  by  the  Great  Constantine, 
its  eldest  son.  In  the  person  of  Octavius  Caesar  the  offices  of  Pontifex  Maximus  and  Emperor  or 
Dictator  were  united,  therefore  he  legally  possessed  all  power.  In  the  person  of  Constantino,3  by 
Mb  surrender  of  part  to  the  Pope,  they  became  divided,  and  he  surrendered  that  power,  which  he 
only  held  as  delegate,  into  the  hand  of  its  rightful  owner,  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  the  head 
fisherman  (as  the  Pope  called  himself)  of  Galilee.  But  he  claimed  to  be  Pontifex  Maximus,  not 
Pontifex  Magnus,  which  brought  the  whole  world  under  his  sway.  The  grounds  and  nature  of  this 
claim,  and  the  general  character  of  the  mighty  empire  which  flourished  beneath  it  in  a  former  time, 
will  be  described  at  large  in  a  future  book.  The  claim  of  the  Popes  to  supernatural  knowledge,  is 
not  in  reality  so  monstrously  absurd,  as  at  first  it  seems  to  be,  if  every  thing  were  supposed  (as  1 
have  no  doubt  it  was)  to  occur  in  each  cycle,  as  it  had  done  before.  As  the  Supreme  Pontiff  knew  the 

'  Oreuzei,  Liv.  v.  CL  ii,  p.  320.  *  Niebuhr,  ed.  Walter,  Vol.  I  p  64. 

3  Whoso  grand  equestrian  statue  stands,  as  it  ought  to  do,  in  the  poitico  of  St,  Peter'b,  guarding  the  entrance  to  tin* 
temple,  but  not  in  the  temple— the  fiist  servant  of  the  living  God  within. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  I.   SECTION  3.  57 

history  of  the  cycle,  he  could  tell  what  would  happen  in  any  part  of  it.  This  was  the  theory,  and 
he  might  easily  account  for  his  own  ignorance  or  his  knowledge  not  being  equal  to  that  of  his  pre- 
decessors, as  saints  account  for  want  of  power  to  perform  miracles, — his  own  want  of  faith  or  his 
own  or  the  general  decay  of  piety.  Excuses  of  this  kind  are  never  wanting  to  devotees.  The 
Pontifex  Maximus  carried  the  crosier,  as  may  be  seen  on  the  medals  of  the  high-priest  Julius 
Caesar,  and  by  law  his  person  was  sacred,  and  his  life  could  be  forfeited  by  no  crime*  The  assas- 
sin's dagger  was  the  only  resource. l  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  mitre  in  ancient  Rome  had 
obtained  the  supreme  power.  Fortunately  the  power  of  the  sword  saved  the  Western  world  from 
the  fate  of  Tibet.  It  was  before  observed  (Vol.  I.  pp.  6D1,  692),  that  when  the  French  possessed 
Italy,  they  examined  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  found  upon  it  signs  of  the  Zodiac.  There  is  also 
a  published  account,  written  by  a  Roman  of  eminence  before  the  time  of  the  French  invasion, 
which  states,  that  the  same  thing  was  observed,  and  much  discussed,  on  the  chair  being  formerly 
taken  down  to  be  cleaned.  The  Zodiac  had  been  forgotten,  or  the  chair  would  not  have  been  again 
taken  down.  This  is  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  with  its  Zodiacal  chain,  on  which  the  Pope  is  sup- 
posed to  sit  to  rule  the  empire  of  his  first  crown,  of  the  planets,  which  I  named  in  my  last  book. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  his  triple  crown  is  emblematical  of  his  three  kingdoms.  The  illus- 
trious Spaniard  did  not  err  far  \vhen  he  said,  that  the  life  of  Jesus  was  written  in  the  stars. 

Irenasus  was  Bishop  of  Lyons.  He  was  one  of  the  first  fathers  of  the  church  who  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom, and  generally  accounted  one  of  its  most  eminent  and  illustiious  early  writers.  He  was  an 
Asiatic,  but  was  sent  as  bishop  to  Gaul.  He  founded  or  built  a  church  in  that  country.  This 
church  is  yet  remaining  at  Lyons,  though  in  the  combe  of  almost  2000  years  no  doubt  it  has 
undergone  many  alterations.  On  the  fioor,  in  front  of  the  altar,  may  be  seen  a  Mosaic  pavement 
of  the  Zodiac,  though  a  considerable  part  of  it  is  worn  away.  This,  like  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  I 
have  partly  discussed  before — Vol.  L  pp.  19,  20,  and  690.  Persons  who  do  not  look  deeply  into 
these  matters  are  easily  blinded  by  being  told,  that  it  is  the  remains  of  an  old  temple.  But  Ire- 
nseus  had  no  power  to  get  possession  of  Roman  pagan  temples.  The  pretence  is  totally  void  of 
foundation.  The  style  of  building,  its  records,  &c  ,  all  shew  that  what  its  priests  say  is  true,  viz. 
that  it  was  built  by  Irenaeus.  On  many  other  churches,  which  never  were  Roman  temples,  both  in 
Britain  and  elsewhere,  similar  marks  of  the  esoteric  religion,  which  I  have  partly  unfolded,  may  be 
seen.  Nothing  of  this  kind  is  more  striking  than  the  Pagan  Sibyls  seen  in  many  places,  particu- 
larly surrounding  the  Casa  Santa  at  Loretto,  the  mofat  sacred  of  all  the  shrines  of  the  Mack  God — 
where,  in  the  affected  poverty  of  a  cottage,  and  amidst  gold  and  diamonds  without  measure  or 
number,  I  saw  him  sitting  enthroned.  2 

I  entertain  a  strong  suspicion  that  if  we  could  fairly  get  at  the  secret  of  the  Vatican,  we  should 
find  it  held,  that,  in  ancient  times,  there  were  several  high-priests  or  vicars  of  God  upon  the  earth, 
but  that  they  were  all  united  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Bethlehem,  xvho  passed  down  his  power  by 
St.  Peter  to  the  Popes,  who  inherited  his  undivided  power  over  the  whole  world.  From  their 
adoption  of  the  rites  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  of  Jesus,  of  Cyrus  and  Cristna,  and  of  the  Trojan 
priests,  who,  in  fact,  were  the  predecessors  of  those  of  Rome,  I  think  they  were  disposed  to  admit 
several  branches,  all  centering  in  Jesus,  or  perhaps  in  the  last  and  lenth,  the  Popes.  This  is  cor- 
rectly the  doctrine  of  the  Lama  of  Tibet.  Though  the  human  body  of  the  Lama  dies,  he  is  be- 

»  R.  Taylor's  Dieg.  pp.  141,  142,  note. 

*  The  riches  of  this  temple  were  carried  away  and  dissipated  by  the  priests  to  prevent  the  French  from  getting  pos- 
session of  them,  when  they  overran  Italy  in  the  great  revolution  war.  But  since  the  restoration,  in  this  age  of  light,  in 
proportion  to  the  time,  they  have  increased  faster  than  ever  they  did  in  the  age  of  darkness. 

VOL.   II.  I 


58  SEVEN   SACRAMENTS.      EUCHARIST. 

lieved  to  remove  to  some  new  body,  not  to  die.  It  is  with  a  view  to  this  part  of  the  rnythos  that 
the  pedigrees  are  so  carefully  given  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  which  are  called  testaments, 
because  they  are  witnesses  to  the  legality  of  this  claim.  But  all  this  will  be  explained  in  a  future 
book. 

4.  Having  shewn  the  identity  of  the  ancient  and  modern  Roman  Pontifex,  I  shall  proceed  to  the 
celebrated  Seven  Sacraments  of  the  Romish  church,  and  first  to  that  of  the  Eucharist. 

The  first  information  we  have  respecting  the  sacrifice  or  offering  of  bread  and  wine  is  in  Genesis 
xiv.  18, 19,  "  And  Mekhixedek,  king  of  Salem,  brought  forth  bread  and  wine :  and  he  was  the  priest 
of  the  most  high  God.  And  lie  blessed  him,  and  said,  Blessed  be  Abram  of  [by]  the  most  high  God, 
possessor  of  heaven  and  earth."  There  seems  no  doubt  that  this  king  and  priest  was  of  the  religion  of 
the  Persians,  of  Brahma,  of  Mithra,  and  of  A  brain,  as  professed  at  that  time.  The  Mithraitic  sacrifice 
and  the  payment  of  tithes  are  strong  circumstances  in  favour  of  this  opinion.  It  is  not  improba- 
ble, if  Abram  left  his  country  to  avoid  the  abuses  and  idolatry  then  beginning  to  prevail,  that  he 
should  have  come  to  dwell  where  his  religion  ^as  not  yet  corrupted.  We  know  that  the  religion 
of  the  Magi  did  become  corrupted  j  and  it  was  reformed  before  the  time  of  Cyrus  and  Daniel  by  a 
man  called  Zoroaster,  or  Abraham  Zoradust.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Miluer,  Bishop  and  Apostolic  Vicar, 
says,  "  It  was  then  in  offering  up  a  saciifice  of  bread  and  wine,  instead  of  slaughtered  animals,  that 
"  Melchizeclek's  sacrifice  differed  from  the  generality  of  those  in  the  old  law,  and  that  he  prefigured 
"  the  sacrifice  which  Christ  was  to  institute  in  the  new  law  from  the  same  elements.  No  other 
"  sense  than  this  can  be  elicited  from  the  Scripture  as  to  this  matter  3  and  accordingly  the  holy 
"  fathers1  unanimously  adhere  to  this  meaning."2 

St.  Jeroin  says,  "  Melchizedek  in  typo  Christi  panem  et  vinum  obtulit :  et  mysterium  Christia- 
num  in  Salvatoris  sanguine  et  corpore  dedicavit." 3 

It  is  no  little  confirmation  of  this  opinion,  that  we  find  Jesus  Christ  in  the  New  Testament  re- 
presented as  a  priest  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.4  To  account  for  this,  divines  have  been  much 
puzzled.  If  it  be  admitted,  (and  I  think  it  will  be  difficult  to  be  denied,)  that  the  religions  of 
Melchizedek,  of  Abram,  Mithra,  and  Jesus,  were  all  the  same,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  explain- 
ing the  passages  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  respecting  Melchizedek.  Jesus  was  correctly  a 
preacher  or  priest  of  this  order  or  religion.  The  early  Christians  found  the  ancient  legends,  tradi- 
tions, and  circumstances ;  but  probably  their  connexion  was  as  little  known  to  them  as  to  their 
successors,  the  Cyprians,  Augustins,  &c.  However,  I  cannot  well  bo  told  that  this  connexion 
between  the  bread  and  wine  of  Melchizedek  and  the  Christian  eucharist  is  merely  the  produce  of  a 
fertile  imagination,  as  I  am  supported,  according  to  Dr.  Milner,  by  the  ancient  fathers  of  the 
church  unanimously. 

The  temple  of  Jupiter,  without  statue,  on  Mount  Carmel,  where  Pythagoras 5  studied  philoso- 
phy, was  the  temple  of  Melchizedek,  as  Eupolemus  witnesses.  ° 

For  a  long  time  violent  and  even  bloody  feuds  took  place  among  the  Christians  respecting  the 
celebration  of  what  we  call  Easter,— -the  festival,  in  fact,  of  the  goddess  Eostre  or  the  Saxon  or 
Sidonian  Asteroth  or  Astarte.7  In  fact,  two  separate  and  distinct  things  as  they  were  then 
become,  even  if  they  were  identical  in  their  origin,  were  confounded  together.  These  were  the 


1  St,  Cypr.  Ep.  Ixiii. ;  St.  August  in  Ps,  xxxiii. ;  St.  Ohrys.  Horn.  xxxv.  •>  St  Jeroin,  Ep,  cxxvi ,  &c. 

a  Milner,  End  Rel.  Cont.  Let.  40,  p  56.  3  Bryant  on  Philo,  p.  275 

4  Heb.  vii.  1,  10,  i  1,  15.  *  Who  was  a  follower  of  that  religion  of  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  way. 

6  See  Vol.  I.  p.  39,  note,  pp.  82, 94, 329, 389,  790,  823.  1  Bower>  Hist.  Popes,  pp.  27-37. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  I.   SECTION  4.  59 

Jewish  Passover  and  the  sacrifice  of  bread  and  wine  of  Melchizedek ;  and,  in  the  early  ages  of 
Christianity,  they  were  still  observed  by  the  Persians  or  the  followers  of  Mithra.  The  ignorant 
devotees  found  a  tradition  of  Jesus  keeping  the  Passover  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  moon,  of  the 
first  month ;  they  also  found  traditions  of  Jesus  being  declared  to  be  a  priest  of  the  order  of  Mel- 
chizedek. They  also  found  among  them,  or  at  least  among  such  of  them  as  derived  their  descent 
from  the  Gentiles  of  Mithra,  the  sacrifice  of  Bread  and  Wine  or  Water.  The  mystical  and  figura- 
tive expressions  attributed  to  Jesus  they  construed  literally,  and  thus  came  the  real  presence.  But 
their  hatred  of  the  Jews  would  not  permit  them  to  acknowledge  it  to  be  the  Jewish  Passover,  and 
therefore  they  changed  it  from  the  day  on  which  it  ought  to  have  been  celebrated— the  fourteenth 
— to  the  day  on  which,  by  no  possibility,  it  could  have  taken  place,  viz.  the  Sunday  afterward — 
the  supposed  day  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  After  many  centuries,  when  the  Protestants  arose, 
they  seern  to  have  been  most  exceedingly  puzzled  to  know  what  to  do  with  this  rite  j  but  at  last 
they  settled  it  as  we  have  it  now,  excluding  the  sacrifice,  and  construing  the  words  attributed  to 
Jesus  litera-figuratively,  but  keeping  it  still  on  the  Sunday,  the  hatred  towards  the  Jews  having 
at  that  time  suffered  no  abatement.  I  have  used  the  compound  word  litera-figuratively  to  endea- 
vour to  express  the  nonsense  of  the  Protestants,  who  say,  that  the  words  flesh  and  blood  are  figu- 
rative, but  still  that,  as  flesh  and  blood,  they  are  verily  and  indeed  taken.  The  straightforward 
doctrine  of  the  Romish  church  may  be  false  and  shocking,  but  it  is  not,  like  that  of  the  Protestants, 
mere  contradictory  nonsense.  I  beg  that  I  may  not  be  accused  of  speaking  irreverently  of  the 
rite  itself,  for  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  in  its  primitive  simplicity  as  used  by  Jesus  Christ,  without 
exception  the  most  beautiful  religious  ceremony  ever  established  in  the  woild. 

The  whole  of  the  ancient  Gentile  and  Druidical  ceremonies  of  Easter  or  the  Saxon  Goddess 
mswy  Ostrt,  or  Eostre  of  the  Germans,  is  yet  continued  over  all  the  Christian  world.1  This 
festival  began  with  a  week's  indulgence  in  all  kinds  of  sports,  called  the  carne-vale,  or  the  taking 
a  farewell  to  animal  food,  because  it  was  followed  by  a  fast  of  forty  days.  An  account  of  this,  of 
Shrovetide,  of  Ash  Wednesday,  &c.,  &e.,  may  be  found  in  Cleland's  Specimens;2  but  his  expla- 
nation is  not  very  satisfactory,  and  he  is  in  several  instances  mistaken.  But  I  suspect  in  those 
countries  where  the  God  was  feigned  to  be  cut  in  pieces,  as  Bacchus  on  Mont  Martre,  and  Osiris 
in  Egypt,  and  the  limbs  scattered  about,  the  forty  days  were  the  days  passed  by  Isis  or  the 
Maenades  in  mourning  for  them  and  in  searching  after  them. 3  Amidst  the  great  mass  of  other 
matters  in  which  the  identity  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Gentiles  and  of  the  Christians  are 
shewn,  the  explanation  of  the  origin  of  this  rite  is  not  very  material,  and  I  have  not  taken  much 
pains  about  it.  But  its  existence  over  all  the  North  of  Europe  long  before  the  time  of  Christ 
cannot  be  disputed. 

The  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  by  the  followers  of  Mani,  and  by  some  other  of  the  early  sects, 
affords  a  striking  trait  of  identity  between  the  religion  or  gospel  of  the  Persians  or  the  Magi,  and 
that  of  Jesus.  Certainly,  the  nonsense  which  devotees  will  talk,  or  which  devotees  will  believe,  is 
almost  incredible.  But  yet  it  is  quite  incomprehensible  to  me  how  any  set  of  persons  or  sect  (if 
they  were  immediate,  or  in  a  direct  line,  descendants  from  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  the  account  in  the 
gospel  histories  be  true)  can  admit  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  take  the  cup  with 
water,  instead  of  wine,  the  nature  of  the  liquid  being  considered  not  a  trifle  or  of  little  consequence, 


1  See  Bochart,  Vol.  L  p.  676;  Anc,  Univers,  Hist.,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  177$  Parkhurst,  in  voce.  *  P-  89. 

3  I  suspect  the  first  part  only  of  Lent  was  devoted  to  mourning,  the  last  three  days  oixly  being-  spent  in  the  search, 
when  long  processions  took  pkce,  and  ended  with  finding  the  whole  God  on  Easter  Sunday,  or  on  the  fourteenth  day. 
In  all  the  churches  in  Italy,  during  these  forty  days,  the  icons  of  the  Virgin  are  covered  with  a  black  crape  veil 

i2 


60  SBVKN    SACRAMENTS       KCCHARI&T. 

but  a  matter  of  the  first  importance.  How  is  it  possible  for  any  sophistry  about  abstemiousness 
to  persuade  a  person  above  the  rank  of  an  idiot,  that  after  Jesus  had  taken  the  cup  with  wine  as 
described  in  our  gospel  histories,  the  rite  ought  to  be  celebrated  by  his  followers,  not  with  wine, 
but  with  water,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Manichasans,  the  Eiicratitea,  Nestorians,  and  others  > 1 

The  real  state  of  the  case  I  apprehend  to  be  this  :  Christians  in  different  countries  found  various 
accounts  and  practices  with  respect  to  this  matter.  The  Judaizing  Christians  considering  it  a 
species  of  passover  (Christ  is  called  the  Passover  of  the  Christians  2 )  or  paschal  supper,  naturally 
described  the  cup  to  contain  wine,  after  the  manner  of  the  Jews  in  their  passover  5  and  we,  who 
adopt  their  gospels,  take  it  with  wine.  On  the  contrary,  the  Manichseans  and  many  of  the  other 
Eastern  sects,  who,  in  fact,  had  their  gospel  directly  and  immediately  from  the  Persian  Magi,  took 
this  rite  with  water  instead  of  wine.  The  cucharist  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour,  as  the  Magi  called 
the  Sun,  the  second  person  in  their  Trinity,  or  their  euchaiistic  sacrifice,  was  always  made  exactly 
and  in  every  respect  the  same  as  that  of  the  orthodox  Christians,  except  that  the  latter  use  wine 
instead  of  water.  This  bread-and- water  sacrifice  was  offered  by  the  Magi  of  Persia,  by  the  Essenes 
or  Therapeutae,  by  the  Gnostics,  and,  indeed,  by  almost  if  not  quite  all  the  Eastern  Christians, 
and  by  Pythagoias  in  Greece  and  Numa  at  Rome. 

The  Ebionites  or  Nazarenes  were  unquestionably  the  most  immediate  and  direct  followers  ot 
Jesus.  They  were  resident  in  Judea;  they  aic  acknowledged  to  have  been  among  the  very  earliest 
of  the  sects  of  Christians.  As  uncertain  as  tradition  is,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that,  in  less  than 
one  hundred  years  after  the  death  of  Christ,  they  should  not  have  retained  a  correct  tradition  of 
this  rite,  if  they  had  really  received  it  from  him,  and  if  there  had  been  any  certainty  on  the  subject. 
They  are  described  as  a  very  low,  poor,  ignorant  race  of  people.  They  are  said  to  have  had  a 
written  gospel.  Some  persons  have  supposed  the  gospel  of  Matthew  to  have  been  theirs.  But  I 
think  the  very  circumstance  of  their  having  used  water  instead  of  wine  is  sufficient  to  prove  that 
this  cannot  be  true.— All  these  circumstances  afford  traces  of  the  existence  of  this  rite  among  the 
Persians  long  before  the  man  Jesus  of  Jtidea  is  said  to  have  lived. — The  moderns  have  not  known 
what  to  make  of  the  rite.  In  the  service  of  our  Edward  the  Sixth,  water  is  directed  to  be  mixed 
with  the  wine.  This  is  an  union  of  the  two ;  not  a  half  measure,  but  a  double  one.  If  it  be  cor- 
rect to  take  it  with  wine,  then  they  were  right;  if  with  water,  they  still  were  right \  as  they  took 
both,  they  could  not  be  wrong. 3 

The  Persians  had  a  rite  called  the  festival  of  Saka,  Sakea,  or  Sakia,  which  M.  Beausobre  has 
shewn  was  probably  the  Manicheean  Eucharist  or  Love  Feast.  He  observes, 4  that  Cyril  in  calling- 
it  Ischas  has  probably  meant  to  travesty  the  woik  Saka.  Ischas  or  Ischa  was  the  name  of  both 
Sarah  the  wife  of  Abraham  and  of  Jesus.5  Most  likely  it  merely  means  the  Saviour  ;  but  it  pretty 
nearly  identifies  the  name  of  Jesus  with  that  of  Buddha.  To  the  word  Saka  and  its  origin  or  cor- 
ruptions, I  shall  return  by  and  by. 

According  to  Justin's  account,  the  devils  busied  themselves  much  with  the  Eucharist.  After 
describing  in  several  places  that  bread  and  wine  and  water  were  used  in  the  Christian  rite,  he  says, 
"  And  this  very  solemnity  too  the  evil  spirits  have  introduced  into  the  mysteries  of  Mithra m,  for 
"  you  do  or  may  know,  that  when  any  one  is  initiated  into  this  religion,  bread  and  a  cup  of  water, 
"  with  a  certain  form  of  words,  are  made  use  of  in  the  sacrifice."6 

J  Clemens  Alex,  and  Epiphanius  j  Dupuis,  Vol  III  pp  85,  325,  4io.  3  1  Cor.  v.  7, 

s  Dr.  Grabe's  notes  upon  Iienaeus,  Lib.  v.  Cap  ii.  *  Liv.  ix.  Ch,  viii.  p.  729. 

4  See  Vol.  I  pp  583,747,836. 

6  See  Reeves's  Justin,  and  notes  on  Sect.  Ixxxvi.  The  followers  of  Tatian  used  no  wine,  only  water,  in  the  Eucha- 
rist. Mosh.  Hist.,  Cent.  2,  Ch.  v.  S.  ix. ;  see  also  Cent,  2,  Ch,  iv.  S.  xii. 


BOOK  II.  CHAPTER  J.  SECTION  4.  61 

Hyde  says,  "  DeTinctione,  cle  oblatione  panis,  et  de  imagine  resurrectionis,  videatur  doctiss.  de 
laCerda  ad  ea  Tertulliani  loca  ubi  de  hisce  rebus  agitur.  Gentiles  citra  Christum,  talia  celebrabant 
Mithriaca  quse  videbantur  cum  doctrin&  eucharistice  et  resurrectionis  et  aliis  ritibus  Christianis 
con  venire,  quae  fecerunt  ex  Industrie  ad  imitationem  Christianis  mi :  unde  Tert.  et  Patres  aiunt  eos 
talia  fecisse,  duce  diabolo,  quo  vult  esse  simia  Christi,  &c.  Volunt  itaque  eos  res  suas  ita  compa- 
r&sse,  ut  Mithra  mysteria  essent  eucharisticB  Christiana  imago.  Sic  Just.  Martyr,  p.  98,  et  Tertul- 
lianus  et  Chrysostomus,  In  suis  etiam  sacris  habebant  Mithriaci  lavacra  (quasi  regenerationis) 
in  quibus  tingit  et  ipse  (sc.  sacerdos)  quosdam  utique  credentes  et  ndeles  suos,  et  expiatoria 
delictorum  de  lavacro  repromittit,  et  sic  adhuc  initiat  Mithrse."1  From  a  quotation  of  Gorius,  it 
seems  the  modern  as  well  as  the  ancient  fathers  have  recourse  to  the  very  satisfactory  agency  of 
the  devil,  to  account  for  these  things. 

Our  catechism  says,  that  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  ordained  for  the  continual 
remembrance  of  the  SACRIFICE  of  the  death  of  Christ ;  and,  that  the  outward  part  or  sign  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  bread  and  wine.  It  then  goes  on  to  say,  that  the  inward  part  or  thing  signified 
is  the  body  and  Mood  of  Christ  (thing  signified  !),  which  are  verily  and  indeed  taken,  and  received 
by  the  faithful  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  then  concludes  by  saying,  that  the  souls  of  those  who 
partake  of  this  sacrament  are  to  be  refreshed  by  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  their  boclie&  are 
by  the  bread  and  wine. 

A  very  learned  and  ingenious  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  Mr.  Glover, a  has  said,  "  In 
"  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  is  the  natural  body  and  blood  of  Christ  vere  et  realiter,  verily  and 
"  indeed,  if  you  take  these  terms  for  spiritually  by  grace  and  efficacy  ;  but  if  you  mean  really  and 
"  indeed,  so  that  thereby  you  would  include  a  lively  and  moveable  body  under  the  form  of  bread 
w  and  wine,  then  in  that  sense  is  not  Christ's  body  in  the  sacrament  really  and  indeed/'  And  thus 
he  sophistically  explains  away  the  two  plain  words  ver§  and  realiter.  How  is  it  possible,  without 
the  grossest  abuse  of  language,  to  make  the  words  verily  and  indeed  mean  spiritually  by  grace  and 
efficacy  ?  However,  his  ingenious  sophistry  does  not  affect  my  argument,  as  all  I  undertake  is,  to 
shew  that  this  rite  is  more  ancient  than  Christianity— and  this, cannot  be  disputed, 

When  the  reader  has  duly  considered  all  the  other  circumstances  which  I  have  brought  together 
respecting  the  religions  or  doctrines  of  Mithra,  the  Esseneans,  Pythagoreans,  Jesus,  &c.,  he  will 
not  deny  the  strong  probability  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  or  of  bread  and  wine,  as  is  asserted 
by  the  Romish  Apostolic  Vicar,3  Dr.  Milner,  has  descended  even  from  the  remote  time  of 
Abraham. 

The  Mass  of  the  Romish  Church  is  of  the  very  first  importance  in  their  religion.  The  word 
Mass,  it  has  been  said,  is  taken  from  the  ceremonies  of  Isis,  in  which,  after  the  ceremonies  and 
the  other  mysteries  were  ended,  the  people  were  dismissed,  by  the  Greeks,  with  the  words 
Aao*£  a$ecn$,  which  mean,  the  people  may  retire;  that  the  Romans,  in  the  same  ceremonies, 
used  the  words  Ite,  Mis&io  est;  (see  Apuleius  de  Missio;)  and,  that  the  Missio,  by  corruption,  has 
become  Messe  or  Mass* 4  This  is  very  unsatisfactory.  I  believe  the  meaning  of  the  Mess  or 
Mass  is  nothing  but  the  Latin  name  for  corn  or  bread,  and  that  to  the  expression  Ite,  Missio  est, 
a  word  for  finished  was  originally  added  or  is  understood,  or  has  been  by  degrees  dropped. s  Of 


1  De  Bel.  Vet.  Pers.  Cap  iv.  p.  J 13.  «  Remarks  on  Marsh's  Comp.  View,  p.  102. 

*»  The  Vicars  Apostolic,  I  understand,  receive  episcopal  ordination,  but  have  more  power  than  ordinary  bishops. 
Dr  Alexander  Geddes,  whom  I  have  often  quoted,  sustained  the  same  rank* 

4  ApuL  Lib.  xvf,  de  Asino  aureo  \  Pol.  Virg.  Cap.  xii. 

*  In  Yorkshire,  on  the  festival  of  St.  Thomas,  wheat  is  given  to  the  poor,  and  it  is  eaten  not  ground,  but  boiled 
whole,  called/H4m<mty.  This  is  the  sacrifice  of  the  Messis  or  Mass. 


62  SEVEN    SACRAMENTS.      EUCHARIST. 

the  descent  of  the  Mass,  or  the  sacrifice  of  bread  and  wine,  from  Melchizedek,  I  have  had  frequent 
opportunities  of  speaking.1  And  I  have  shewn  that  this  sacrifice  was  common  to  many  ancient 
nations.  M.  Marolles,  in  his  Memoirs,  2  quotes  Tibullus,  in  the  fourth  elegy  of  his  third  book, 
where  he  says  that  the  Pagans  appease  the  Divinity  with  holy  bread  —  Fane  pio  placant  ;  that 
Virgil,  in  the  fifth  book  of  the  JSneid,  says,  they  rendered  honours  to  Vesta,  with  holy  bread, 


Farre  pio  et  pUnb  suppler  veneratur  acerrti.  —  Lines  744,  745. 

He  adds,  that  the  words  of  Horace,  Farre  pio  et  saliente  mica,  relate  to  the  same  thing,  and  that 
Tibullus,  in  the  panegyric  to  Messala,  wrote  that  a  little  cake  or  a  little  morsel  of  bread  appeased 
the  Divinities.  Parvaque  ccelestes  pacavit  mica.  As  I  have  before  repeatedly  observed,  the  sacri- 
fice without  blood  was  ordered  by  Numa  Pompilius,  and  practised  by  Pythagoras.  It  may  be 
remarked,  in  passing,  that  the  term  to  immolate,  which  is  used  for  sacrifice,  may  come  from  the 
Latin  word  mola,  which  was  the  name  that  the  Pagans  gave  to  the  little  round  bits  of  bread  which 
they  offered  to  their  Gods  in  this  sacrifice.  The  Mass  is  also  called  the  Host.  This  word  means 
a  host,  a  giver  of  hospitality,  and  also  an  enemy,  and  the  host  of  heaven,  and  is  the  name  of  the 
harbour  of  the  city  of  Saturn-ja  or  Valencia  or  Roma,  Ostia. 

The  Romans  celebrated,  on  the  22nd  of  February,  the  feast  of  Charisties  or  Caristies  or  Charis- 
tia.  From  the  character  of  this  festival,  I  have  a  strong  suspicion  that  the  name  was  a  corruption 
of  the  ancient  Chrest,  Xprjg  and  E^o>£,  Creuzer  3  says,  "  This  was  a  family  or  domestic  feast, 
"  which  the  Roman  religion  exhibits  in  its  aspect  most  moral  and  amiable.  It  followed  several 
*c  days  of  mourning  for  departed  friends.  The  oldest  of  the  family,  he  who  first  in  the  order  of 
"  nature  would  go  to  increase  the  number  of  those  who  were  already  gone,  reunited  all  its  mem- 
"  bers  at  a  feast  of  love  and  harmony  \  when  the  object  was  to  reconcile  all  differences  among  the 
"  members  of  it."  As  M.  Creuzer  observes,  w  it  shews  beautifully  that  the  ancients  did  not 
"  separate  the  contemplation  of  the  future  from  present  joys.  The  day  was  sacred  to  Concord 
"  and  the  Lares,  and  finished  the  old  and  began  the  new  year."  And  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  nothing  more  beautiful  could  well  be  imagined.  —  From  this  Charisties  comes  our  Charity  and 
Caritas,  not  exclusively  in  the  sense  of  giving  to  the  poor,  but  in  that  of  brotherly  love  as  used  by 
Paul,  And  here  we  have  among  the  oldest  of  the  ceremonies  of  Italy,  the  Eucharist  or  ev%apisru* 
of  the  Christians. 

Valerius  JVlaximus  4  says,  "Convivium  etiam  solenne  majores  instituerant  :  idque  C/iaristia  appel- 
"  laverunt,  cui  prater  cognatos  et  affines,  nemo  interponebatur  :  ut  si  qua  inter  necessarios  querela 
u  esset  orta,  apud  sacra  rnensae,  et  inter  hilaritatem  animorum,  favoribus  concordiae  adhibitis,  tolle- 
"  retur."  5  Cleland  shews  that  this  festival  was  in  use,  as  we  might  expect,  among  the  Celts  and 
Druids.6 

This  festival  in  Hebrew  was  called  taip  jww,  a  feast,  communion.7  From  this  comes  our 
communion. 

Similar  to  the  Italian  Charistia  was  the  beautiful  and  simple  rite  of  the  Jews,  of  breaking  bread 
and  drinking  with  one  another  at  their  great  festivals,  in  fact  of  celebrating  the  sacrifice  of  bread 


1  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  718,  725,  823.  *  P.  2i5.  5  Livre  dnqirifeme,  CU.  iii,  p.  456. 

4  Lib.  ii.  Cap  i,  Sect.  8. 

5  That  bloody  sacrifices  were  not  used  in  tlie  earliest  times  is  an  opinion  supported  by  Sophocles ;  Pausanias,  de 
Cerere  Phrygialeusi ,  by  Plato,  de  Legibus,  Lib.  vi.  j  and  by  Erapeclocles,  Lib.  de  Antiq,  Temp, 

6  Spec.  Etymol.  Vocab,  p.  111.  *  Vail.  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  V.  p.  224. 


BOOK  II.     CHAPTER  I.     SECTION  4.  63 

and  wine  so  appropriate  to  Jesus,  the  priest  of  the  order  of  Melchizedek,  which  was  converted  in 
a  later  day  into  a  horrible  mystery.  When  a  Jew  has  broken  the  bread  and  partaken  of  the  cup 
with  his  fellow,  it  is  considered  that  a  peculiar  and  brotherly  affection  is  to  subsist  between  them 
for  the  next  year ;  and,  if  there  had  been  any  previous  enmity,  this  ceremony  is  considered 
the  outward  sign  (of  an  inward,  spiritual  grace),  that  it  no  longer  exists.  In  all  Jewish  families, 
after  their  paschal  supper,  the  bread  is  always  broken,  and  the  grace-cup  is  tasted  and  sent  round 
by  the  master  of  the  house.  It  is  described  as  one  of  the  last  actions  of  Jesus,  when  he  had 
reason  to  believe  that  his  enemies  would  proceed  to  violence  against  him,  and  is  in  strict  keeping 
with  what  I  am  convinced  was  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  every  part  of  his  character  and  life.  The 
reader  will  please  to  observe  that  when  I  speak  thus  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  give  no  credit  to  the  im- 
proper conduct  ascribed  to  him,  or  to  the  fact  of  his  having  taught  the  immoral  doctrines  ascribed 
to  him  in  the  gospel  histories l  of  the  different  sects  of  his  followers,  so  inconsistent  with  his  gene- 
ral character. 

Jesus  is  made  to  say,  "  This  is  my  flesh/'  "  This  is  my  blood.3'  If  we  take  these  words  to 
the  letter,  they  were  evidently  not  true.  The  articles  spoken  of  were  neither  his  flesh  nor  his 
blood.  Then  it  is  surely  only  consistent  with  candour  to  inquire  what  meaning  could  be  given  to 
them,  agreeable  to  common  sense  and  the  meaning  of  this,  at  that  time,  ancient  ceremony.  This, 
I  think,  will  be  found  in  the  fact  which  we  all  know,  that  he  abolished  among  his  followers  the 
shocking  and  disgusting  practice,  at  that  time  common,  of  offering  sacrifices  of  flesh  and  blood,  so 
well  described  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Faber,  and  at  that  time  still  practised  upon  grand  occasions  among 
the  Druids  or  Chaldees,  and  Romans,  even  to  the  length  of  offering  human  victims. — It  seems  not 
unlikely  that  we  have  only  part  of  the  speech  of  Jesus,  that  its  object  was  the  abolition  of  that 
disgusting  and  atrocious  practice,  and  that  his  speech  had  reference  to  it.  Speaking  as  he  did,  or 
is  said  to  have  done,  always  in  parables,  he  might  readily  use  the  figurative  expression  in  reference 
to  something  which  had  passed  before  against  bloody  sacrifices :  and  at  that  time  he  might  use 
the  words,  This  is  my  bodys  and  this  is  my  bloody  which  I  offer;  i.  e.  This  is  my  offering  of  body 
(or  flesjh)  and  blood,  and  no  other.  It  was  the  offering  of  Melchizedek  and  of  Pythagoras,  his 
predecessors,  and,  probably,  originally  of  all  nations,  *  The  bread  was  always  broken,  and  is  yet 
broken,  in  the  ceremony,  and  given  as  a  token  of  remembrance,  precisely  as  he  used  it.  Eat  this 
in  remembrance  of  me.  How  could  any  words  be  more  natural  ?  This  agrees  very  well  with  what 
he  is  made  to  say  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Nazarenes  :  "  I  came  to  abolish  sacrifices,  and  unless  ye 
"  cease  to  offer  sacrifices,  the  wrath  of  God  shall  not  cease  from  you."2 

The  whole  paschal  supper  was  a  festival  of  joy  and  gladness,  to  celebrate  the  passage  of  the 
sun ;  and,  after  the  family  had  eaten,  the  remainder  was  given  to  the  poor,  along  with  such  other 
matters  as  the  elect  or  chapter  could  spare  5  for  I  apprehend  the  XOWDWO*,  or  community  of  goods, 
was  confined  at  first  to  the  lodge,  to  the  seventy-two  j  and  perhaps  the  Eucharist  was  at  first 
taken  by  only  the  twelve  elect  or  perfect  in  the  mysteries.  The  probability  of  these  matters  must 
be  left  to  the  reader.  The  evidence  is  not  very  clear,  though  the  probability  is  strong.  This 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  rational  explanation  of  the  words,  and  is  consistent  with  the  general  character 
of  Jesus — the  character  of  the  priest  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.  It  dovetails  well  into  the 
historical  fact  of  no  sacrifice  of  animals  having  ever  taken  place  in  his  religion,  and  with  the  Gen- 
tile histories.  And  when  he  was  founding  his  religion  on  the  Mosaic  system,  there  does  seem 


1  Probably  some  of  the  spurious  gospels;  for,  happily,  on  the  testimony  of  the  canonical  Gospels— uticontradicted  by 
respectable  profane  history — even  ytnbellewn  have  concurred  with  the  Author  in  paying  a  tribute  of  respect  to  "  the 
*'  beautiful  simplicity  of  every  part  of  the  character  and  life"  of  JESUS  CHRIST.  Editor. 

*  J.  Jones  on  Can-on,  Pt.  II.  Chap,  xxv.  Art.  12,  p.  275. 


64  BAPTISM. 

to  require  an  explanation  of  the  reason  why  the  ordained  sacrifices  were  abolished.  Here  we  see 
the  reason  why  the  Melchizedekian  sacrifice  was  restored,  or  declared  to  be  enough,  without 
holocausts  or  even  paitial  burnt- offerings. 

Besides  the  Chariatia  of  the  Romans,  as  above  described,  there  must  have  been  some  other 
ceremony  very  similar,  or  some  sectaries  must  have  held  opinions  from  which  the  modern  Romibh 
priests  have  copied  their  Transubstantiation,  as  we  find  the  doctrine  alluded  to  by  Cicero.  The 
Rev.  R.  Taylor,  in  his  answer  to  Dr.  Pye  Smith, l  says,  "  There  is  a  passage  in  Cicero,  written 
"  forty  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  in  \\  hich  he  ridicules  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation, 
"  and  asks,  how  a  man  can  be  so  stupid  as  to  imagine  that  which  he  eats  to  be  a  God  ?  Ut  illud 
"  quo  vescatur  Deuin  esse  pntet  >" 

The  ancients  always  washed  before  they  sacrificed,  says  Eustache  upon  Homer;2  and  Hesiod 
forbids  any  wine  to  be  offered  to  Jupiter  with  unwashed  hands.3  And  Virgil  tells  us,  that  ^Eneas, 
even  though  the  city  was  on  fire,  durst  not  touch  the  Gods  to  save  them,  till  he  had  first  washed 
his  hands.  In  the  ritual  of  the  Romish  church  it  is  said,  Sacerdos  sanctam  eucharistiam  adminis- 
tratuTus  procedat  ad  altare  lotis  prius  manibus. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Pagan  priests  to  confess  before  they  sacrificed,  demanding  pardon  of 
the  Gods  and  Goddesses.  Numa  ordered  this  to  be  observed  by  the  Romans,  not  esteeming  the 
sacrifice  good,  unless  the  priest  had  first  cleared  his  conscience  by  confession.  The  Romish  priests 
are  expected  to  do  this  before  they  celebrate  the  Mass.4 

Numa  oidaincd  that  the  priest  who  made  the  sacrifice  should  be  clothed  in  white,  in  the  habit 
called  an  alba.5  This  is  the  alb  which  he  carries  who  celebrates  the  Mass.  Above  the  alb,  Numa 
ordered  the  sacrificer  to  carry  a  coloured  robe,  with  a  pectoral  or  breast-plate  of  brass,  which  is 
now  often  changed  into  gold  or  silver.  This  is  what  is  called  chasuble.  The  priests  use  also  a 
veil,  with  which  they  cover  the  head,  called  amict.  Ail  these  ornaments  were  introduced  by  Numa. 
They  are  also  most  of  them  found  among  the  Jews. 

The  turnings  and  genuflexions  of  the  priests,  and  their  circular  processions,  were  all  ordered  by 
Numa.6  The  last  were  also  the  Deisuls  of  the  Druids.  ^Du  Cboul  has  shewn,  7  that  the  custom 
of  having  the  Mass  in  the  morning  was  taken  from  the  Egyptians,  who  divided  the  time,  like  the 
Romish  church,  into  prime,  tierce,  and  sexte. 

The  Pagans  had  music  in  their  temples,  as  the  Romish  devotees  have  in  their  churches.  Galiea 
sajb,  they  have  no  sacrifice  without  music.8  I  shall  add  no  more  on  this  subject  here,  but  I  shall 
resume  it  in  a  future  Book.  I  shall  then  try  to  penetrate  to  the  bottom  of  this,  which  I  am  per- 
suaded is  one  of  the  most  profaned  of  the  mysteries. 

5.  The  next  rite  which  I  shall  notice  is  that  of  Baptism. 

That  the  ceremony  of  baptism  is  older  than  the  time  of  Jesus  is  evident  from  the  Gospels  5  °  but 


1  P  1 H.  '  In  II.  i.  3  Hist  Operum  et  Dior.  *  Du  Ghoul,  p.  2?0 

*  Alex  ab  Alex  Lib.  iv.  Cap.  xvii,  «  Du  Choul,  p.  275 ;  and  Pol,  Virg  Lib.  i.  5,  Cap.  xi.  i  P.  309. 

8  Gal  Lib.  xvii.  deOff  ;  Scaliger,  Lib.  i  Poet,  Cap,  xHv.  j  Strabo,  Lib.  x.  s  Arnob.  Lib  vii. 

y  The  Author  makes  no  lefeience  in  proof  of  this  assertion;  and,  whatever  may  have  been  the  practice  of  the  follow- 
ers of  Zoroaster  or  otbeis,  there  i*  no  saifcfdotoiy  evidence  detlucible  fioni  either  the  Old  Testament  or  the  Gospels, 
that  Baptism  was  practised  by  the  Jews  prior  to  the  ministry  of  the  Baptist,  The  Author,  however,  like  many  other 
wnteis,  both  Advocates  and  Opponents  of  baptism,  probably  ovei  looked  the  diffeience  between  #»ir7«r/A«  (washings., 
avto  or  ^-cleansing  &)  and  /W/<r,«a,  which  is  never  used  in  the  N  T  in  the  plural;  01,  perhaps,  he  recollected  the 
question  of  the  Priests  and  Levites  to  John,  "  Why  baptizest  thou  then,  if,"  &c.  ?  (John  i  25.)  On  which  it  ma\ 
be  remarked,  that  the  pi  ououn  thott,  which  is  often  regaided  as  emphatically  contrasting  John  with  otheis  who  had 
previously  baptized,  is  not  emphatically  expressed  in  the  onginal.  It  is  simply,  T<  ey  favltfys;  not  TJ  BV  fl 
St; :  Editor. 


BOOK   II.   CHAPTER   I,   SECTION   5.  65 

how  much  older  it  may  be,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain.  It  was  a  practice  of  the  followers  of 
Zoroaster.1  Hyde  says,  "  Pro  infantibus  non  utuntur  circumcision  e,  sed  tantum  baptismo  seu 
"  lotione  ad  animce  purifieationern  internam.  Infantem  ad  sacerdotem  in  ecciesiam  adductum 
"  sistunt  coram  sole  et  igne,  qu&  facta  ceremonia,  eundem  sanctiorem  existimant  D«  Lord  dicit 
"  quod  aquam  ad  hoc  afferunt  in  cortice  arboris  Holm :  ea  autera  arbor  revera  est  Haum  Magorum, 
<c  cujus  mentionem  ali£  occasione  supra  fecimus.  Alias,  aliquando  fit  immergendo  in  magnum  vas 
"  aquae,  ut  dicit  Tavernier.  Post  talem  lotionem  seu  baptismum,  sacerdos  imponit  nomen  a 
"  parentibus  inditum."  After  this  Hyde  goes  on  to  state,  that  when  he  comes  to  be  fifteen  years 
of  age  he  is  confirmed  by  receiving  the  girdle,  and  the  sudra  or  cassock. 

The  Holm  or  Haum  here  spoken  of  by  Hyde,  is  the  Phoenix  or  Phoiuix  or  Palm-tree,  called  by 
Burckhardt  and  Buckingham,  in  their  Travels  in  Asia,  the  Dom-tree — the  tree  of  the  sacred  OM.2 

"  De-la  vint,  que  pour  devenir  capable  d'entendre  les  secrets  de  la  creation,  r£v61es  dans  ces 
"  monies  rnysteres,  il  fallut  se  faire  rege'ne'rer  par  ^initiation.  Cette  cer£moniea  par  laquelle,  on 
6f  apprenoit  les  vrais  prindpes  de  la  vie,  s'operoit  par  le  moyen  de  feau  qui  avoit  e*t£  celui  de  la 
"  regeneration  du  monde.  On  conduisoit  sur  les  bords  de  1'Ilissus  le  candidat  qui  devoit  £tre 
"  initie  -9  apr£s  1'avoir  purifie  avec  le  sel  et  1'eau  de  la  mer,  on  repandoit  de  1'orge  sur  lui,  ou  le 
<ff  couronoit  de  fleurs,  et  CHydranos  ou  le  Baptiseur  le  plongeoit  dans  le  fleuve.  I/ usage  de  ce 
"  Baptdme  par  immersion,  qui  subsista  dans  TOccident  jusqu'  au  8e  siecle,  se  maintient  encore 
"  dans  1'Eglise  Greque :  c'est  celui  que  Jean  le  Pr&urseur  administra,  dans  le  Jourdain,  £  Jesus- 
"  Christ  meme.  II  fut  pratiqu6  chez  les  Juifs,3  chez  les  Grecs,  et  chez  presque  tous  les  peuples, 
"  bien  des  siecles  avant  1' existence  de  la  religion  Chretienne :  c'est  encore  une  de  ces  anciennes 
(C  ceremonies  que  Dieu  sanctifta  pour  le  bien  des  homines.  On  vient  de  voir  qu'elle  en  fut 
"  I1  origin e,  dans  les  terns  qui  prec£derent  celui  ou  le  Bapteme  devint  un  Sacrement.  Les  Indians 
"  continuent  a  se  purifier  dans  les  eaux  du  Gange,  qu'ils  regardent  comme  sacres."4 

M.  Beansobre  has  clearly  proved  that  the  Manichaeans  had  the  rite  of  Baptism,  both  for  infants 
and  adults,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  He  has  satisfactorily  proved  the 
falsity  of  St.  Augustine  upon  this  point;  but,  indeed,  nothing  which  Augustine  says  against  the 
sect  whom  he  deserted  and  betrayed,  is  worthy  of  any  credit  whatever.  M.  Beausobre  5  says, 
"  Mani  had  more  than  one  reason  for  administering  baptism  to  infants.  This  custom  not  only 
<c  served  to  confirm  his  opinion,  that  corruption  is  in  nature,  and  comes  to  man  by  nature,  but  in 
"  this  he  conformed  to  the  custom  of  the  Magi,/rom  which  he  deviated  as  little  as  he  possibly  could. 
^  This  was  the  way  to  give  them  a  taste  for  his  religion.  The  ancient  Persians  carried  their 
**  infants  to  the  temple  a  few  days  after  they  were  born,  and  presented  them  to  the  priest  before 
"  the  sun,  and  before  the  fire,  which  was  his  symbol.  Then  the  priest  took  the  child  and  baptized 
"  it  for  the  purification  of  the  soul.  Sometimes  he  plunged  it  into  a  great  vase  full  of  water :  it 
(e  was  in  the  same  ceremony  that  the  father  gave  a  name  to  the  child.  When  the  child  had  arrived 
"  at  fifteen  years  of  age,  he  was  presented  again  to  the  priest,  who  confirmed  him  by  giving  him 
"  the  robe  called  the  Sudra  and  the  Girdle.  These  were  the  symbols  or  the  sacraments  of  the 
*c  promises  that  he  made  to  God  to  serve  him  according  to  the  religion  of  the  Persians."  The 
reader  sees  that  Mani  is  said  to  have  deviated  as  little  as  possible  from  the  rites  of  the  Magi. 
This  is  true  enough.  In  fact,  the  Evangelion  of  Zoroaster,  of  the  Romish  Jesus,  and  of  Mani, 
were  all  precisely  the  same  in  punciple,  and  very  nearly  the  same  in  all  their  ceremonies.  The 


1  Hyde  de  ReL  Vet.  Pers.  Cap.  xxxiv.  p.  406.  *  See  Vol.  I.  p.  742,  note,  s  See  Editor's  note  ut  sup. 

*  D'Anc.  Res.  Vol.  I.  p.  292.  5  Liv.  ix,  Ch.  vi.Sect.  xvi, 

VOL.  II.  K 


66  BAPTISM. 


variation  was  not  more  than  might  he  expected  to  arise,  from  distance  in  situation,  in  time,  and 
from  difference  of  languages  and  nations. 

Dr.  Hyde  says, l  "  Et  postea  anno  aetatis  xv°,  quando  incipit  induere  tunicam,  sudra,  et  cin- 
"  gulum,  ut  religionem  ingrediatur,  et  iile  in  articulis  fidei  versatur,  a  sacerdote  ei  datur  confirma- 
"  tio,  utj  ab  eo  tempore,  inter  numerum  fidelium  admittatur,  et  fidelis  esse  reputetur."  If  this 
account  of  Dr.  Hyde's  be  correct,  which  I  believe  no  one  ever  doubted,  it  is  impossible  for  any 
person  to  be  so  blind  as  not  to  see,  that  these  three  extremely  important  and  vital  ceremonies  of 
the  Christian  religion — Baptism,  Christening,  and  Confirmation — were  nothing  but  rites  of  the 
religion  of  the  Magi,  of  Mithra,  or  of  the  sun. 

Upon  this  subject  Justin  says,2  in  Section  Ixxxi.,  "The  devils  110  sooner  heard  of  this  baptism 
"  spoken  of  by  the  prophet,  but  they  too  set  up  their  baptisms,  and  made  such  as  go  to  their  tern- 
"  pies  and  officiate  in  their  libations  and  meat  offerings,  first  sprinkle  themselves  with  water  by 
a  way  of  lustration  $  and  they  have  brought  it  to  such  a  pass,  that  the  worshipers  are  washed  from 
"  head  to  foot  before  they  approach  the  sacred  place  where  their  images  are  kept."  On  the  above 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Reeves  makes  the  following  note :  "  That  such  mock  baptisms  were  set  up  by  the 
"  contrivance  of  the  Devil  in  the  Gentile  world,  we  find  not  only  asserted  by  Justin,  but  all  the 
"  primitive  writers,  and  particularly  by  Tertullian,  de  baptismo.  Certe  ludis  Apollinaribus  et 
"  Eleusiniis  tinguntur,  idque  se  in  regenerationein  et  impunitatem  perjuriorum  suorum  agere 
"  praesumunt.  Thus  were  men  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis,  and  he  who  initiated  them 
"  was  called  'Yfyavo$,  the  waterer,  '¥fy>avo$  6  aywpjs  no?  EXsuermaw.3  Thus  again  we  learn 
"  from  Tertullian,  that  they  initiated  men  into  the  rites  of  I  sis  and  Mithra,  Nam  et  sacris  quibus- 
"  dam  per  lavacrum  initiantur  Isidis  alicujus  aut  Mithrae, 4  the  chief  priest  of  that  Goddess,  (as 
**  Apuleius  describes  his  own  initiation,) fi  leading  the  party  to  be  initiated  to  the  next  bath  5 
<€  where,  having  first  delivered  him  to  the  usual  washing,  and  asked  pardon  of  the  Goddess,  he 
"  sprinkled  him  all  about,  and  bringing  him  back  to  the  temple,  after  two  parts  of  the  day  were 
"  spent,  placed  him  before  the  feet  of  the  Goddess/* 

Mosheim  shews,  by  many  sound  and  ingenious  arguments,  that  the  rite  of  baptism  was  an  old 
ceremony  of  the  Israelites  long  before  the  time  of  Christ. 6 

After  baptism  they  received  the  sign  of  the  cross,  were  anointed,  and  fed  with  milk  and  honey.  y 
Dr.  Enfield  asserts,  that  baptism  xvas  not  used  by  the  Jews,  but  only  by  the  Samaritans. 8    If 
this  be  true,  (but  I  know  no  authority  for  it,)  it  instantly  makes  a  Samaritan  of  Jesus  Christ,     I 
do  not  think  the  Doctor  would  have  liked  this. 

John  the  Baptist  was  nothing  but  one  of  the  followers  of  Mithra,  with  whom  the  deserts  of  Syria 
and  the  Thebais  of  Egypt,  abounded,  under  the  name  of  Essenes.  He  was  a  Nazarite  3  and  it  is  a 
curious  and  striking  circumstance  that  the  fountain  of  JBnon,  where  he  baptized,  °  was  sacred  to 
the  sun.  Though  he  be  said  to  have  baptized  Jesus,  yet  it  is  very  remarkable  that  he  established 
a  religion  of  his  own,  as  is  evident  from  the  meu'who  came  to  Ephesus,  and  were  there  converted 
from  his  religion  to  Christianity  by  St.  Paul.10  This  religion  is  not  extinct,  but  continues  in  some 
parts  of  Asia,  as  we  have  formerly  noticed,  under  the  names  of  Mundaites,  Nazoreens,  Nazourcans, 
or  Christians  of  St.  John. ll 


1  De  Rel.  Vet.  Pers,  Cap.  xxxiv.  p.  406.  *  See  his  Apology,  Sect.  Ixxxvii.  xcvii.  xeviii,  ci.  »  Hesych. 

*  De  Bapt.  Cap.  v.  *  Milesi,  ii.  citat.  a  Seldeao  de  Success,  ad  Leg.  Haebr.  Cap.  xxvi, 

6  Com.  Cent  L  Sect,  vi.      7  Mosh.  Hist.  Cent.  II.  Ciu  iv.  Sec.  13,  See  Dtipuis,  sur  tous  les  Cultes,  Vol.  III.  p.  325, 

•  Hist,  Phil  Vol.  II.  p.  164.  J»  John  iiL  23.  10  Acts  xix.  1—7.  "  Vol.  I,  pp.  540,  657, 808. 


BOOK   II.   CHAPTER  I.   SECTION  6,  &J 

Michaelis1  states  it  to  be  his  opinion,  that  these  men,  lohnists  as  they  are  now  called,  were 
Essenes.  In  my  article  on  the  Essenes  this  is  proved  clearly  enough.  I  have  no  doubt  that  John 
was  an  Essene,  as  well  as  Jesus, 

Matthew  (iii.  11)  makes  John  say,  w  I,  indeed,  baptize  you  with  water;  he  shall  baptize  you 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  fire," 

"  I,  indeed,  have  baptized  you  with  water  5  but  he  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost."— 
Mark  i.  8. 

"  John  answered,  saying,  I,  indeed,  baptize  you  with  water  $  but,  he  shall  baptize  you  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  fire''— Luke  iii.  16. 

In  some  parts  of  Scotland  it  is  a  custom  at  the  baptism  of  children  to  swing  them  in  their 
clothes  over  a  fire  three  times,  saying.  Now,  jire,  bum  this  child  or  never.  Here  is  evidently  the 
baptism  byfre.  When  the  priest  bio  wed  upon  the  child  in  baptizing  it,  in  my  presence,  in  the 
baptistery  at  Florence,  was  this  to  blow  away  the  devils  according  to  the  vulgar  opinion,  or  was  it 
the  baptism  by  air— Spiritus  Sanctus  ?  Priests  profess  to  communicate  the  spiritus  sanctus*  The 
baptism  by  fire  and  water  was  in  use  by  the  Romans-  It  was  performed  by  jumping  three  times 
through  the  flame  of  a  sacred  fire,  and  being  sprinkled  with  water  from  a  branch  of  laurel.  Ovid 
says,8 

Certe  ego  transilui  positas  ter  in  ordine  flammas, 


This  is  still  practised  in  India.4  "  From  old  Grecian  authorities  we  learn,  that  the  Massagetae 
u  worshiped  the  sun ;  and  the  narrative  of  an  embassy  from  Justin  to  the  Khakan,  or  Emperor, 
"  who  then  resided  in  a  fine  vale  near  the  source  of  the  Irtish,  mentions  the  Tartarian  ceremony 
"  of  purifying  the  Roman  ambassadors  by  conducting  them  between  two  fires.5*  Jones  on  the 
Language  of  the  Tartars.6 

The  Etruscans  baptized  with  air,  with  ftrey  and  with  water;  this  is  what  is  alluded  to  many 
times  in  the  Gospels.6  If  the  words  Ghost,  spiritus  in  Latin,  7rvet>/x,a  in  Greek,  and  nn  ruh,  in 
Hebrew,  be  examined,  they  will  all  at  last  be  found  to  resolve  themselves  into  the  idea  of  air  or 
breath — which  gave  the  first  idea  of  the  soul  of  man.  Thus  we  say,  the  breath  departed  from  a 
man,  or  his  soul  left  him — he  gave  up  the  ghost,  spiritus.  This  may  give  a  low  or  mean  idea  of 
the  state  of  science  \  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  its  infancy  the  breath  of  man  was  supposed  to  be 
his  soul.  When  it  was  the  breath  of  God,  of  course  it  was  the  holy  ghost  or  spirit  This  is  per- 
fectly in  keeping  with  the  materialism,  the  anthropomorphism  of  the  letter  of  Genesis,  of  Moses, 
and  of  all  other  nations*  When  Jesus  communicated  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  breathed  on  his  dis- 
ciples. 

In  plates  172,  173,  174,  &c.,  Gorius  gives  examples  of  the  baptism  of  the  ancient  Etruscans,  in 
the  rites  of  Mithra  or  Isis,  by  water,  air,  fire,  and  blood.  The  ancient  Etruscans  were  thought  by 
many  to  be  a  colony  which  escaped  from  Egypt  when  the  shepherd  kings  conquered  that  country. 
The  identity  of  the  worship  of  ancient  Etruria  and  Egypt  makes  this  not  unlikely. 

6.  In  Tab.  clxxii.  Gorius  gives  two  pictures  of  ancient  Etruscan  baptisms  by  water.    In  the  first, 


1  Marsh's  Mich.  Vol.  VI.  Oh.  xv.  §  iv.  pp.  82,  8?. 

*  See  Protestant  Ordination  Service,  [and  the  Petition  (to  the  House  of  Lords,  August  5, 1833)  of  the  Rev.  Charles 
N.  Wodehouse,  Prebendary  of  Norwich,  for  an  alteration  of  this  and  other  parts  of  the  Liturgy.  Editor^ 
3  Fasti,  Lib.  iv.  ver.  727-  4  Vide  Maurice's  Ind.  Ant.  Vol.  V.  p.  1075. 

9  Asiat  Res.  VoL  II.  p.  31,  4to,  6  See  the  references  ut  supra. 

K2 


68  BAPTISM. 

the  youth  is  held  in  the  arms  of  one  priest  and  another  is  pouring  water  upon  his  head.  In  the 
second,  the  young  person  is  going  through  the  same  ceremony,  kneeling  on  a  kind  of  altar. 
Gorius  says,  "Solemnem  apud  Etruscos  baptisrnatis  traditionem  per  manus  sacerdotis,  aliis  sacrjs 
"  ministris  adstantibus,  additis  modulationibus,  precibus  et  carminibus,  ceterisque  ceremoniis, 
"  quas  mox  indicabo,  nemo  alius  certe,  quara  diabolus,  nequissimus  humani  generis  hostis,  exco- 
"  gitavit  docuitque  :  qui,  nt  insanas  gentes,  divinae  lucis  expertes,  in  sui  servititim  et  obedientiam 
"  miserandum  in  modum  captivaret,  lustrandi  complura  genera,  aere,  aqu&,  igne,  sanguine,  alias- 
"  que  februationes  monstravit,  ut  Deum  divinse  legis  conditorem  sapientissimum  aemularetur. 
"  Caliidissimas  ejus  artes  ita  aperit  Tertullianus.1  Diabolus  ipsas  quoque  res  sacramentorum,  in 
"  idolomm  mysteriis  temulatur,  tingidt  et  ipse  quosdam,  utique  credentes  et  fideles  suos,  expiationem 
**  de  LAVACRO  repromittit,  et  sic  adhuc  initiat  Mithras  :  signat  ille  in  frontibus  milites  suos  :  celebrat 
"  et  panis  oblationem^  et  imaginem  resurrectionis  inducit,  et  sub  gladio  rediinit  coronam,  Quid  ® 
"  quod  et  summum  pontificem  in  unis  nuptiis  statuit?  habet  et  virgines,  habet  continentes.  Ceterum 
"  si  Nnmte  Powpilii  superstitiones  revolvamus,  si  sacerdotii  officia  et  privilegia,  si  sacrificalia  minis- 
"  teiia  et  instrunienta  et  vasa  ilia  sacrificiorum  et  piaculorum,  et  votorum  curiositates  consideremus 
"  nonne  manifeste  Diabolus  morositatem  legis  Mosaics  imitatus  est  $  Addo  etiam,  Etruscos,  com- 
"  pluribus  seculis  ante  Numam  Pompilium,  non  solum  in  usu  habuisse  BAPTISMA,  verum  etiam 
"  sacram  %eipQTQViu,v,  nam  Etruscas  Antistitae  manus  imponunt  iis,  quos  iuitiant,  ut  alibi  osten- 
"  dam,  adlato  Etruscae  vrnae  anaglypho  opere.  Constat  enim,  initiatos  complura  probationum 
"  genera  experiri  debuisse,  antequam  sacris  Deorum,  ac  praBsertim  MITEIR-E,  admitterentur  qua?, 
te  mox  considerabitnus." 
The  following  are  copies  of  the  two  Etruscan  inscriptions  on  the  monuments  above  alluded  to  : 


In  the  middle  of  the  second,  a  letter  seems  to  be  wanting. 

These  Etruscan  monuments  would  have  been  ascribed  to  the  ancient  Christians  if  the  Etruscan 
inscriptions  had  not  rendered  this  impossible.  In  this  manner  I  have  no  doubt  whatever,  that 
great  numbers  of  Gentile  monuments  of  antiquity  have  been  adopted  by  modern  Christians. 

From  these  ancient  Etruscan  monuments  it  is  evident,  that  the  practice  of  baptism  was  common 
long  before  the  birth  of  John  or  Jesus,  in  the  ceremonies  of  Isis,  of  Mithra,  and  of  the  Eleusiniau 
mjsteries;  and  from  the  passage  in  Tertullian,3  it  is  evident,  that  it  was  not  merely  a  similar 
ceremony  of  washing.  The  words  regenerationem  et  impunitatem  perjuriorutn  suorum  (the  actual 
word  regeneratio  used  in  our  order  of  baptism)  prove,  that  the  doctrines  as  well  as  the  outward 
forms  were  identically  the  same.  It  appears  also  from  the  former  part  of  the  quotation,  that  the 
practice  of  sprinkling  with  holy  water,  both  by  the  Greek  and  Romish  churchs,  was  used  by  the 
Etruscans,  and  was  only  a  continuation  of  their  ceremony.  On  the  festival  of  All  Souls,  at  Florence, 
the  monks  went  round  their  cloisters  and  monasteries,  in  the  presence  of  the  author,  sprinkling 

1  DC  Piaescript.  adv.  Hseret  Cap  xl. 

*  The  ceremony  of  baptism  was  moitly  accompanied  with  the  sacrifice  of  0raw/atul  wine. 

3  De  Bapt.  Cap  v  quoted  in  p  66. 


BOOK    II.      CHAPTER   I.      SECTION  8.  69 

the  walls,  &c.,  &c.,  with  holy  water,  as  described  by  Tertullian  to  be  the  practice  of  the  ancient 
followers  of  Mithra. 

Apuleius  also  shews,  as  above  stated,  that  baptism  was  used  in  the  mysteries  of  Isis.  He  says, 
"  Sacerdos,  stipatum  mereligiosa  cohorte,  deducit  ad  proximas  balneas:  et  prius  SUETO  LAVACRO 
"  tradituni,  praefatus  deum  vemam,  purissimfc  CIRCUMRORANS  abluit." 

Mr.  Maurice  shews  that  purgations  or  lustrations  by  water,  and  holy  water,  were  equally  used 
by  the  Jews,  Persians,  Hindoos,  and  Druids  of  Britain, l  Potter,  in  his  Antiquities,  proves  that 
every  ancient  temple  had  a  vase,  filled  with  holy  water.  This  was  called  a  Piscina,  and  was 
probably  the  Bowli  of  India,  noticed  in  my  first  volume.  2 

The  child  is  taken  to  the  priest,  and  is  named  by  him  and  blessed,  &c.,  before  the  sacred  fire, 
being  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  which  is  put  into  the  bark  of  a  sacred  tree  called  Holme. 3 

7.  The  giving  of  a  name  to  the  child  (as  indicated  by  the  parents  to  the  priest),  the  marking  of 
him  with  the  cross  as  a  sign  of  his  being  a  soldier  of  Christ,  followed  at  fifteen  years  of  age  by  his 
admission  into  the  mysteries  by  the  ceremony  of  confirmation,  or  the  sacred  ;£e;porowa,  or  impo- 
sition of  hands,  the  same  as  in  our  ceremonies,  prove  that  the  two  institutions  are  identical.    But 
the  most  striking  circumstance  of  all  is  the  regeneration— and  consequent  forgiveness  of  sins — 
the  being  born  again.    This  shews  that  our  baptism  in  doctrine  as  well  as  in  outward  ceremony, 
was  precisely  that  of  the  ancient  Etruscans.    The  ^e/porov/a  is  evidently  the  same  ceremony  as 
the  admission  of  our  priests  into  orders,  as  well  as  the  ceremony  of  confirmation  or  admission  to 
church  membership.    In  each  case,  by  the  p^s/porowot,  a  portion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  supposed 
to  be  transferred  from  the  priest  to  the  candidate.    I  beg  my  reader  carefully  to  read  our  baptismal 
service.    This  ^s/porovia  is  the  baptism  by  the  Holy  Ghost,     Christian  Baptism  was  called 
AsTjpov  -sraTuyyjvjWJOts,  the  laver  of  regeneration, 4  and  ^WHCT/AOI/,  illumination. 

It  is  a  cuiioub  circumstance  that  not  one  word  can  be  produced  from  the  New  Testament  in 
support  of  infant  baptism  ;  every  thing  adduced  in  its  favour  from  that  authority  being  a  violent 
and  forced  implication.  Bellarmine  is  obliged  to  admit,  that  infant  baptism  is  contained  in  Scrip- 
ture "  in  universal?9  though  not  "  in  particulars "  5  This  is  an  excellent  example  of  a  modern 
tradition — that  is,  of  a  tradition  set  up  since  the  writing  of  the  gospel  histories — a  doctrine,  a 
sacrament,  forgotten  by  the  Evangelists  and  the  authors  of  the  Epistles,  but  discovered  since,  by 
their  more  enlightened  followers  ! 

8.  I  must  now  notice  a  branch  of  the  Christian  baptism  of  exquisite  beauty*    I  must  confess 
that  my  favourite  Pagans,  as  they  will  be  called,  can  produce  nothing  equal  to  it.    And  this  is 
the  baptism  of  BELLS.    It  is  peculiar  to  the  Western  part  of  the  world,  though  somewhere  or 
other,  but  where  I  cannot  recollect,  I  have  read,  that  there  is  a  similar  ceremony  in  China. 

We  are  told  by  Mr.  Maurice  that  bells  were  sacred  utensils  of  very  ancient  use  in  Asia.  The 
dress  of  the  high-priest  of  the  Jews  on  the  most  sacred  and  solemn  occasions  was  trimmed  with 
bells  and  pomegranates.  Calmet6  tells  us,  that  the  kings  of  Persia,  who  were  both  priests  and 
kings,  had  their  robes  trimmed  with  pomegranates  and  bells.  This  almost  identifies  the  Jews 
and  Persians.  Mr.  Maurice  states  that  bells  are  used  in  the  ceremonials  of  the  pagodas  of  India 
to  frighten  away  the  evil  spirits  or  demons,  who  are  supposed  to  molest  the  devotee  in  his  reli- 
gious exercises,  by  assuming  frightful  forms,  to  distract  his  mind  from  the  performance  of  his 

1  Maur.  Ind.  Ant.  VoL  VI  p,  216  *  P.  516,  note  2,  and  pp,  638,  641. 

»  Herbert's  Travels,  p.  58,  fol.  1665.  *  Note  to  Reeves's  Justin  Martyr,  p,  99. 

*  Glover's  Answer  to  Marsh,  p,  140.  6  Diet,  word  lelL 


70  ORDINATION.  —  MARRIAGE. 

duty*  He  says,  "  The  vibration  of  the  sacred  bell,  however,  was  ever  heard  with  horror  by  the 
cc  malign  demons,  who  fled  at  the  sound,  while  the  air  being  put  in  motion  by  it,  became  purified 
"  of  the  infection  which  their  presence  imparted.  From  Asia,  it  is  probable  that  the  bell,  with  a 
"  thousand  concomitant  superstitions,  was  imported  into  Europe,  and  mingled  with  the  rites  of  a 
"  purer  religion.  Every  body  knows  its  importance  in  the  catholic  worship  ;  the  ceremony  of 
"  anathematizing  with  bell,  book,  and  burning  taper  :  and  the  thrilling  sound  of  the  dreadful 
"  passing  bell,  which  not  only  warns  the  devout  Christian  to  pray  for  the  departing  soul  of  his 
"  brother,  and  to  prepare  to  meet  his  own  doom,  but  drives  away,  said  the  good  Catholics  of  old 
"  time,  those  evil  spirits  that  hover  round  the  bed  of  the  dying  man,  eager  to  seize  their  prey,  or> 
"  at  least,  to  molest  and  terrify  the  soul  in  its  passage  into  eternal  rest."  l 

The  bell  probably  not  being  known  to  the  Lacedemonians,  they  used  iufateatl  of  it  a  kettle-drum, 
This  is  stated  to  be  used  at  the  death  of  their  king  to  assibt  in  the  emancipation  of  his  boul  at  the 
dissolution  of  his  body  ;*  evidently  our  passing  bell. 

"  Pope  John  XIV.,  about  the  year  970,  issued  a  bull  for  the  baptizing  of  Bells,  '  to  cleanse  the 
"  *  air  of  devils.9  The  baptizing  of  Bells  was  only  permitted  to  the  Bishops  suffragan,  because  it 
"  was  of  a  more  principal  kind  than  that  of  infants:  priests  and  deacons  cuuld  baptize  them. 

"  The  tongue  of  the  baptized  Bell  made  the  ears  of  the  affrighted  demons  ring  with  f  Raphael 
"'Saneta  Margereta,  ora  pro  nobis'—  these  prayers  are  on  bells  at  St.  Margaret's  Mount  in 
«  Cornwall. 

"In  Luther's  time  the  princes  of  Germany  complained  to  the  Legate,  *that,  at  the  time  of 
"  baptism,  godfathers  of  the  richer  sort,  after  the  Suffragan,  take  hold  of  the  rope,  &>ing  together, 
"  name  the  bell,  dress  it  in  new  clothes,  and  then  have  a  sumptuous  feast."  3 

During  the  French  Revolution,  four  of  the  bells  of  the  cathedral  of  St.  Louis,  Versailles,  were 
destroyed.  On  the  6th  of  January,  1824,  four  new  ones  were  baptized.  The  M  King  and  the 
"  Duchess  D'Angoul£me  were  sponsors.  The  inscription  varying  the  name  and  number  on  each 
"  is  —  *  Je  suis  la  premiere  de  quatre  sceurs,  qui  ont  £te  offertes  a  Dieu,  &c.  J'ai  et£  b&iite,  &c., 
"  '  et  nommg  Marie  par  sa  Majest£  Louis  XVIII.,  Roi  de  France  et  de  Navarre,  et  par  S.  A.  R. 
«  'Madame,  Fille  de  Louis  XVI.,  Duchesse  d'AngouWme/"  &c. 

"  The  four  sisters  were  suspended  in  the  centre  of  a  platform,  under  a  square  canopy  of  crimson 
"  silk,  with  broad  gold  fringe,  and  surmounted  with  plumes  of  ostrich  feathers.  The  eldest  wore 
"  a  superb  petticoat  of  embroidered  gold  brocade^  over  another  of  silver  tissue,  festooned  at  the 
"  bottom,  and  fastened  with  white  satin  rosettes,  so  as  to  exhibit  the  end  of  the  clapper,  peeping 
"  out  beneath.  The  others  were  arrayed  in  plain  gold  brocade  over  a  silver  tissue.  During  the 
**  ceremony  no  splendours  in  the  grand  ceremonials  of  'the  church  were  omitted.  A  white  satin 
"  ribbon  being  passed  from  the  iron  tongue  of  each  bell  to  the  hand  of  the  sponsors,  they  gave  a 
"smart  pull  for  each  response,  and  the  sisters  each  time  answered,  *Amen/"4  Ah,  happy 
France,  which  possesses  a  family  &o  alive  to  the  comforts  of  OUT  blessed  religion  !  I  !  AND  STILL, 
HAPPIER  BRITAIN,  THE  SWOBD  OF  WHOSE  ENEMY  is  WIELDED  BY  SUCH  A  FAMILY  !  !  1  A.  D.  1830. 

9.  It  cannot  be  shewn,  perhaps,  that  the  Persians  had  the  same  forms  for  the  ordination  of 
their  priests  as  those  now  used  by  the  Christians  \  but  they  had  all  the  remainder  of  the  hier- 
archical system,  as  Dr.  Hyde  has  shewn  ;  whence  it  is  fair  to  conclude,  that  they  had  also  the 
forms  of  orders,  the  ^e^orowa,  though,  from  the  lapse  of  ages,  &c.,  it  cannot  be  satisfactorily 


1  Maur.  Ind,  Ant.  Vol.  V.  p,  904.  *  SchoL  in  Tiieocrit.  Idyll,  ii.  ver.  36  ,  see  Mr.  Knight,  p.  16?, 

*  Gravamu  Cent.  German.  Grar.  51.  4  Hog's  Hist.  Cornwall,  p,  470. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  I.   SECTION  10.  7^ 

proved.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  casual  mention  of  some  other  of  the  Persian  customs  by  the 
early  fathers,  we  should  have  known  nothing  about  them.  Therefore,  it  must  be  left  to  the  reader 
to  judge  for  himself,  when  he  has  considered  what  Dr.  Hyde  has  said,  whether  there  may  not 
transpire  enough  to  justify  him  in  inferring  from  the  large  part  of  the  system  which  has  come 
down  to  us,  that  the  remaining  small  part  existed  formerly,  though  the  evidence  of  it  be  now  lost. 
This  must  not  be  considered  as  a  solitary  instance  taken  by  itself,  for  in  that  case  it  would 
certainly  amount  to  nothing ;  but  it  must  be  considered  conjointly  with  all  the  other  circumstances 
of  striking  similarity,  indeed  of  absolute  identity,  of  the  two  religions.  The  practice  of  the 
Xg^orovta,  in  the  case  of  Confirmation,  raises  a  strong  suspicion,  that  it  would  not  be  wanting 
In  the  more  important  matter  of  Ordination. 

Hyde1  says,  "  Et  quidem  eorum  sacerdotium  fere  coincidebat  cum  eo  Judseorum,  in  quo  erat 
"  unus  sumtnus  sacerdos,  et  deinde  plurimi  sacerdotes  atque  Levitae.  Hoc  autem  excedebat 
"  hierarchica  Persica,  (quamvis  Christum  praecesserat,  magis  cum  Christian!,  coincidens,)  in  qu& 
"  prater  sacristanos, 2  erant  sacerdotes,  et  prsesules  et  archiprsesules,  qui  hodiernis  Christiariorum 
"  presbyteris,  et  episcopis,  et  archiepiscopis  correspondent.  Ade6  ut  ecclesiae  Christianas  ainicis 
{C  pariter  et  inimicis  fort&  novum  et  inopinatum  videbitur  in  Persist  reperisse  constitutionem  eccle- 
e*  siasticam  prope  3000  abhinc  annis  fundatam,  quse  tarn  pulchre  coincident  cum  subsequente 
"  hierarchii  Christian^..  Hocque  non  sine  nuraine  factum,  sc,  Persas  olim  ordin£sse  idem  quod 
"  postea  Christus  et  Apostoli  ejus,  in  plenitudine  temporis,  tandem  nov&  sanctione  instituerunt 
<f  et  confirmarunt.  Ecclesice  itaque  eorum  regimen  in  primi  ejusdem  constitutione  fuit  benfc 
"  fundaturn.  Eorum  synagogae  minores  seu  indotatse  ecclesise  parochiales  alunt  in  singulis  unum 
**  sacerdotem,  eumque  ex  decimis  ac  spontaneis  contributionibus :  nee  ignis  perpetui  expensas 
"  in  eis  faciunt,  nisi  per  lampades,  exceptis  magnis  quibusdam  diebus.  At  Pyrea,  seu  tenipla 
"  cathedralia,  ubi  sedes  episcoporum,  amplis  terris  et  reditibus  dotata  erant,  ad  parandum  sacri- 
**  ficia,  et  ligna  coemendum,  et  ad  alendum  sacerdotium  amplissimum."  a 

As  with  the  Jews,  the  sacred  fire  was  fed  with  sacred  wood,  from  which  the  bark  was  taken. 
And  as  now,  in  Romish  countries,  "  in  propriis  aedibus  plerique  habent  perpetuo  ardentes  lam- 
"  pades  ab  igno  sacro  accensas."4  On  the  great  festivals  they  sent  their  victuals  to  a  common 
table,  and  ate  together  with  the  poor,  as  described  by  Pliny  to  be  the  case  with  the  early  Chris- 
tians of  Bithynia. 

From  the  passages  here  cited  it  is  evident,  that  the  hierarchy  of  the  Christians  is  a  close  copy 
of  that  of  the  Persians,  and  that  where  the  Christian  differs  from  the  Jewish  it  agrees  with  the 
Persian,  a  proof  that  it  is  taken  from  the  latter  and  not  from  the  former.  It  has  been  before 
observed,  that  Mr,  R.  Taylor,  in  his  Diegesis,  has  clearly  proved  the  Christian  hierarchy  to  be 
the  same  as  that  of  the  Essenes,  even  to  the  most  minute  parts.  The  similar  customs  of  keeping 
candles  and  lamps  always  burning  in  their  temples  is  very  striking.  The  larger  endowments  for 
the  cathedrals  bear  a  marked  resemblance  to  those  of  ours  in  this  country,  many  of  which  were, 
I  have  no  doubt,  the  renovated  establishments  of  the  ancient  Druids. 

10.  The  rite  of  marriage  was,  with  the  ancient  Persians,  a  religious  service  5  and,  for  its 
solemnization,  they  had  a  long  liturgy  or  form, s  after  the  manner  of  the  Greek,  the  Romish,  and 
the  Protestant  Christians,  and  not  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Scotch,  among  whom  it  is  only 


1  De  Rel.  Vet,  Pers.  Cap.  xxvffi.  p.  349,  ed.  1700. 

*  From  the  ancient  Sacristan  of  the  Persians  the  Sacristan  of  tlie  Catholics  is  taken,  and  also,  by  abbreviation,  our 
Saxtan  and  Sexton.    Hyde,  ut  sup.  Cap.  xxx.  p.  368  j  Dupuis,  Vol.  III.  p.  86. 
3  Hyde,  ut  sup.  Cap.  xxviii.  p.  351,  ed.  1700.  *  Ibid.  p.  352,  ed.  1700,  *  Ibid.  Cap.  xxxiv. 


72  PURGATORY. 

a  civil  contract.  l     The  contents  of  the  liturgy  are  lost,  but  we  know  that  the  use  of  the  ring,  on 
the  second  finger  from  the  last  on  the  left  hand,  was  practised  by  almost  all  the  ancients. 2 

11.  Every  one  knows  in  what  high  estimation  oil  was  held  among  the  Eastern  nations,  and  he 
has  not  read  the  Old  Testament  with  attention  who  is  not  acquainted  with  the  very  frequent  use 
of  anointing  among  the  Jews.  "  The  practice  of  anointing  was  not  confined  to  kings,  but  was 
"  extended  to  prophets  and  others.  It  was  especially  practised  on  a  medicinal  account,  and 
"  administered  publicly  in  the  synagogues  by  the  elders  on  the  Sabbath  5  where  the  applying  of 
*c  this  remedy  to  poor  sick  people,  was  accompanied  by  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  for  their 
"  recovery,  and  the  pardon  of  their  sins ;  or  if  the  persons  were  in  a  very  weak  condition,  the 
"elders  came  home  to  them.  Lightfoot  observes,  out  of  the  Jerusalem  Talmud,3  that  Rabbi 
"  Simeon,  the  son  of  Eleazar,  permitted  Rabbi  Meir  to  mingle  wine  with  the  oil,  when  he 
"  anointed  the  sick  on  the  Sabbath :  and  quotes  as  a  tradition  from  them,  that  anointing  on  the 
"  Sabbath  was  permitted."  4  The  Apostle  James  therefore,  writing  to  the  Jewish  Christians, 
whose  synagogues  and  rites  were  precisely  the  same  with  those  of  the  other  Jews,  says  "  Is  any 
"  sick  among  you  >  let  him  send  for  the  elders  of  the  church  j  and  let  them  pray  over  him, 
"  anointing  him  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  and  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick,  and 
"  the  Lord  shall  raise  him  up  ;  and,  if  he  have  committed  sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven  him." 5 

Whether  the  Persians  had  the  rile  of  extreme  unction  I  do  not  know  3  but  if  they  had  it  not, 
then  the  Christians  must  have  borrowed  it  from  the  Jews.  When  all  other  circumstances  are 
considered,  few  unprejudiced  persons  will  be  found  to  doubt,  that  this  practice  was  probably 
common  to  the  Jews  and  the  Persians. 

There  is  scarcely  any  doctrine  of  the  Romish  Church  which  has  afforded  more  matter  for  the 
use  of  the  weapon  of  ridicule  than  that  of  purgatory — that  weapon  declared  by  the  Protestants 
to  be  so  unfair,  abominable,  and  blasphemous,  when  applied  against  themselves ;  but  considered 
to  be  so  fair,  honourable,  and  legitimate,  when  used  by  them  against  their  Romish  enemies. 

The  doctrines  of  Penance  and  Purgatory,  taught  by  the  Catholics  and  so  much  calumniated 
by  the  Protestants,  are  exactly  the  same  in  principle  as  the  penances  and  metempsychosis  of  the 
Pythagoreans,  Platonists,  and  Indians.  The  Romish  doctrine  of  penance  is  precisely  that  of  the 
Hindoos,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  from  the  modified  principle  of  the  metempsychosis  the  doctrine 
of  purgatory  took  its  rise.  After  man,  reasoning  upon  the  beauty,  order,  and  sublimity,  of  the 
creation,  arrived  at  the  knowledge  of  the  First  Great  Cause  and  ITS6  attributes  of  benevolence 
&c.,  the  belief  in  man's  immortality  followed  as  a  necessary  consequence.  For,  if  there  were  not 
a  future  state  of  existence,  where  the  good  would  be  rewarded  and  the  bad  punished,  how  could 
the  Creator  be  just  or  benevolent  ?  And  again,  how  could  he  be  either  just  or  benevolent  if  the 
existence  of  man  in  a  future  state  was  not  happy  or  miserable  in  proportion  to  his  good  or  bad 
conduct  here  1  And  as  man  has  been  created  fallible  in  his  nature,  and  inevitably  subject  to  fall 


1  It  was  the  same  in  England  from  1653  to  1660,  and  is  considered  to  be  a  civil  contract  in  the  United  States  of 
North  America.  Editor. 

«  Vide  Tert.  Apol.  Cap.  vl  pp.  173,  &c.  *  Harm.  N.  Test.  Works,  Vol.  I,  p.  333. 

4  Toland's  Naz.  p,  54.  «  James  v.  14, 15 ;  see  also  Mark  vi.  13,  xvL  18. 

6  I  say  its;  for  how  absurd  is  it  to  give  a  masculine  or  feminine  gender  to  the  Creator '  The  only-begotten  Son  ot 
God !  l^  What  nonsense  I  Tho  only  excuse  which  can  be  made  for  the  use  of  the  word  begotten,  is,  that  those  who 
adopt  it  apply  to  it  no  idea  whatever,  or  s»orne  idea  which  the  word  does  not  mean.  [The  Evangelist  John  alone  uses 
the  expression,  (ch.  i.  14,  18,  iii.  16,  18 ;  1  Epis.  iv  9,)  and  as  he  wrote  neither  his  Gospel  nor  his  Epistle  till  long 
after  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of  his  revered  Lord,  the  sense  in  which  he  used  the  term  may  probably  be  gathered 
from  Rev,  i.  5—"  Jesus  Christ  fi&firstJtegotten  of  the  dead."  Editor. J 


BOOK    II.    CHAFFER   I.    SECTION   11.  73 

into  some  degree  of  guilt,  it  was  also  thought  to  follow  that  his  future  state  of  existence  could  not 
be  eternally  miserable.  This  was  the  inevitable  consequence  if  the  Creator  were  just ;  hence 
arose  the  doctrine  of  purgatory — a  state  of  existence  in  which  the  soul  of  man  or  that  part  of  him 
that  exists  after  death,  and  which  though  invisible  must  exist,  will  in  future  receive  the  reward 
of  his  good  or  bad  conduct. 

This  was  the  simple,  unadulterated  doctrine  of  the  sages  of  India,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome : 
it  remained  for  the  brilliant  imagination  of  John  Calvin  to  discover  that  it  was  consistent  with  the 
attributes  of  benevolence  in  an  omnipotent  Creator  to  cause  a  being  to  exist,  who,  from  his  very 
nature,  is  obliged  to  sin,  and  then,  for  such  sin,  to  condemn  him  to  endless  misery.  But  these 
doctrines  are  deduced  by  learned  men  of  narrow  minds  from  corrupt  passages  in  the  Gospels,  and 
still  more  from  the  fanatical  nonsense  of  Paul. l 

The  doctrine  of  purgatory  or  of  a  future  state,  in  which  man  was  to  receive  the  greater  or  less 
reward  of  his  misconduct  in  this  life,  like  every  thing  in  which  priests  have  any  concern,  was  soon 
corrupted  and  converted  into  an  engine  to  aggrandize  their  pernicious  order,  and  to  enable  them 
to  wallow  in  luxury  and  sloth  upon  the  hard  earnings  of  their  fellow-creatures.  Hence  they 
taught  their  blind  and  credulous  devotees,  that  by  their  superior  sanctity  they  could  prevail  upon 
God  to  alleviate  or  shorten  the  term  of  their  future  punishment,  and  by  aggravating  the  faults  of 
the  miserable  and  repentant  sinner,  in  the  last  stage  of  weakness  aud  disease,  and  working  upon 
his  terrified  imagination,  they  extorted  from  him  his  wealth.  Hence  arose  voluntary  acts  of 
supererogation  and  penances,  by  suffering  which  in  this  life  the  punishment  in  another  was  to  be 
mitigated.  Hence  masses  or  services  for  the  dead.  Hence  extreme  unction  and  all  the  other 
figments  of  Papistical  foolery  among  the  devotees  of  Greek,  Catholic,  or  sectarian  Christianity, 

Protestants  may  exclaim  against  these  superstitions,  as  they  call  them,  but  they  are  real 
orthodox  Christianity  and  cannot  be  got  rid  of.  It  is  no  argument  to  say,  they  are  absurd  or 
peinicious.  They  are  not  more  absurd  than  the  doctrine  of  demoniacs,  nor  more  pernicious  than 
the  doctrine  of  the  efficacy  of  faith  without  works.  We  have  already  quoted  the  opinion  of  the 
Apostle  James  on  the  sqbject  of  anointing  the  sick,  p.  72.  He  adds,  (ch.  v.  16,)  Confess  your 
faults  one  to  another ',  and  pray  one  for  another,  that  ye  may  be  Iiealed,  The  effectual  fervent  prayer 
of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much. 

The  doctrine  of  Purgatory,  so  offensive  to  the  gloomy  fanatics  among  the  Protestants,  because 
it  does  away  with  the  doctrine  of  eternal  damnation,  is,  when  not  abused,  one  of  the  most  sensible 
of  the  miscalled  Christian  doctrines,  because  it  is  not  contrary  to  the  moral  attributes  of  God,  It 
was  a  close  copy  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Heathens  and  of  Plato,  who,  in  his  Phsedon,2  divides  the 
dead  into  three  sorts — the  good  in  a  state  of  bliss  ;  the  very  bad  in  Tartarus  ;8  and  the  curable  in 
an  intermediate  state,  from  which,  after  they  have  been  in  it  a  suitable  time,  they  are  released. 
For  these  last,  the  Gentiles  were  in  the  habit  of  offering  sacrifices,  called  reXsra*.  In  his 
Republic,  II.,  Plato  says,  *f  That  these  rshBrai  belong  only  to  the  dead,  and  are  named  from 
"  TeAeur>j<raflr/5  being  sacrifices  appointed  to  deliver  us  from  the  infernal  sufferings ;  they  were 
(f  offered  chiefly  in  the  night,  and  called  ftupfpia,  mysteries"  The  doctrine  of  Purgatory  is  found 


1  Rather  from  passages  in  the  Gospels  and  in  Paul's  Epistles  misunderstood  and  misrepresented  ?    Editor. 
8  P.  113. 

3  I  believe  Paradise  or  Tartarus  to  be  in  Tartary,  the  farther  side  of  Meru,  the  mount  on  the  side  of  the  North, 
where  the  Gods  assembled  in  judgment.  Though  the  Europeans  made  it  hot,  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  natives  of  a 
country  under  a  tropical  sun  tnade  their  hell  cold.  The  same  reason  in  part  caused  the  Hindoos  to  place  the  mount 
Meru  in  a  temperate  climate,  on,  the  sides  of  the  North. 

VOL.   If.  L 


74  AURICULAR  CONFESSION. 

in  Tertullian.  *  This  early  date  shews  them  to  be  coeval  or  nearly  so  with  Christianity,2  The 
prayers  for  the  dead  are  evidently  the  Gentile  rsherat,  purchased  with  gifts. 

The  Jews  had  the  rite  of  Confession.3 

On  several  of  the  ancient  monuments  in  the  Carapigdolia  at  Rome  are  bas  reliefs  of  the  ancient 
Sibyls,  or  of  females  performing  penance,  which  leave  no  room  to  doubt  that  this  sacrament  was  in 
use  by  the  Romans.  They  may  be  seen  by  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  go  to  look  at 
them,  This  fact  requires  no  further  proof.  The  Flagellants  were  exact  copiers  of  the  priests  of 
Bellona,  and  of  the  priests  of  Baal. 4 

The  hermits  of  Italy  are  humble  imitators  of  the  Fakirs  of  India,  who  were  well  known  in 
ancient  times.  St.  Austin  says,5  "They  abstain  from  women,  and  philosophize  naked  in  the 
"  solitudes  of  the  Indies.  From  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun  they  remain  with  their  eyes 
u  steadfastly  fixed  upon  it.  Others  stand  perpetually  on  one  leg.  They  expose  themselves  without 
"  complaint  to  the  extremes  of  cold  and  hunger." 

The  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  the  efficacy  of  the  prayers  of  the  living  to  relieve  the  deceased 
from  their  sufferings  is  a  correct  copy  of  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  Pagans.  Ovid  says  that 
uEneas  was  the  first  person  who  introduced  the  doctrine  into  Italy.  In  his  Fasti  he  says, 

Hunc  moreni  ^Eneas,  pietatis  idoneus  auctor, 

Attulit  in  terras,  juste  Latine,  tuas. 
Ille  patris  Genio  solennia  dona  ferebat ; 

Hinc  populi  ritus  edidicere  novos  [pios?].— Lib.  ii.  543 — 546. 

It  was  the  general  belief  of  the  Pagans,  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  would  return,  to  demand  of 
the  living  that  they  should  offer  sacrifices  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  them  from  the  pains  which 
they  endured.  The  Pagans  differ  from  the  Romish  priests  in  this,  that  they  offered  up  their 
prayers  for  the  dead  on  the  ninth  day,  the  Romish  on  the  seventh.6  This  is  confirmed  by 
Polydore  Virgil.7 

Lord  Kingsborough  8  states,  that  the  Jews,  of  later  day  I  suppose  he  means,  were  believers  in 
purgatory. 

The  tombs  of  the  pretended  Gods  were  not  set  up  by  merely  an  ignorant  populace,  but  they 
were  encouraged  and  protected  by  law.  Ludovicus  Vives  says,  "  The  religion  of  sepulchres  is» 
"  most  ancient :  whereby  it  was  prohibited  to  any  to  violate,  throw  down,  or  break  them  :  which 
"  law  was  not  only  in  the  twelve  tables,  and  among  Solon's,  but  also  in  the  most  ancient  laws  of 
"  Numa,  and  of  both  Latins  and  Greeks :  which  seem  to  belong  not  so  much  to  the  civil  law  as  to 
"  the  sacred  :  because  sepulchres  were  esteemed  as  temples  of  their  Manes  or  Demons  :  whence 
"  there  was  inscribed  on  them  D.  M,  S.  i.  e.  Diis  Manibw  Sacrum :  and  the  sacreds  which  were 
et  performed  to  them  were  called  Neda." 9  Over  the  tombs  of  Heathen  Gods  rose  many  a 
church  dedicated  to  the  same  God,  but  denominated  a  Christian  saint.  Thus  the  tomb  of  Bacchus 
became  a  church  of  St.  Baccus.  Thus  again  the  pretended  tomb  of  the  deified  Romulus  in  Rome 
became  the  church  of  St.  Theodoras. 

13.  Of  all  the  weapons  or  engines  ever  yet  discovered  by  rogues  to  enable  them  to  tyrannize 


1  De  Moneg  ,  and  Origen,  Lib.  iii.  in  Job.  *  Gale's  Court  of  Gent.  Vol.  III.  Book  ii.  Ch.  ii.  Sect.  3  and  11. 

3  Lord  Kingsborough's  Mexico,  Vol.  VI.  p.  301.  4  Tertul.  Apol.  Cap.  ix.  Lib.  ad  Mart,  j  1  Kings  xviii.  28. 

5  Lib.  xv.  de  Civ.  Dei ,-  Plin.  Hist.  Nat*  Lib.  vii,  Cap.  ii.  6  Blondus,  Rom.  Trium,  Lib.  5i,  p.  44, 

7  Lib.  vi,  Cap.  x.  fl  Antiq.  of  Mexico,  Vol.  VI,  p.  %. 

9  Gale's  Court  Gent  Book  ii.  Chap.  ii.  Sect,  3. 


BOOK    II.    CHAPTER    I.   SECTION    13.  7§ 

over  fools,  nothing  has  ever  yet  been  found  so  efficacious  and  powerful  as  Auricular  Confession. 
"  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another/*  says  St.  James,  and  this  put  the  most  secret  affairs  and 
counsels  of  all  the  states  of  Christendom  into  the  hands  of  the  Pope  and  his  priests.  This  powerful 
engine  was  itself  alone  sufficient,  in  the  skilful  hands  of  the  priests,  to  lay  all  the  riches  and  good 
things  of  this  world  at  the  feet  of  holy  mother  church — to  enable  its  bloated,  pampered  hierarchy 
to  ride  triumphant  over  the  liberties  of  mankind,  and  to  reduce  the  rest  of  their  fellow-creatures 
to  the  lowest  state  of  mental  debasement  and  misery.  By  means  of  the  priests  the  kings  tyran- 
nized over  the  people,  and  by  means  of  the  slavery  of  the  kings,  the  priests  had  at  their  command 
the  wealth  of  the  whole  world. 

The  observation  is  as  true  as  it  is  trite,  that  a  small  drop  will  wear  a  hole  in  a  large  stone  :  thus 
causes  apparently  small  by  long  continued  and  unceasing  action  produce  effects  which  to  super- 
ficial observation  seem  out  of  proportion  to  their  power.  Of  this  nature  is  the  practice  of  auricular 
confession  in  the  papal  church.  To  this,  in  a  great  measure,  may  be  attributed  the  victory  which 
it  gained  over  all  its  competitors.  Jt  is  almost  inconceivable  what  a  vast  variety  of  opportunities 
of  acquiring  power  and  wealth  this  must  have  thrown  into  its  hands.  It  must  have  been  almost 
equally  useful  in  enabling  it  to  avoid  dangers.  The  church  possessed  by  this  means  a  species  of 
omniscience.  It  is  evident  that  by  means  of  its  corresponding  societies  of  monks  it  would  be 
timely  warned  of  the  approach  of  every  danger.  Knowledge  has  been  said  to  be  power  \  this  is 
very  true,  and  this  knowledge,  for  a  space  of  almost  a  thousand  years,  enabled  the  Papal  See  to 
dictate  laws  to  the  whole  European  world  5  and,  if  the  art  of  printing  had  not  been  discovered, 
would  have  reduced  it  to  the  situation  in  which  Tibet  now  is,  under  its  grand  Lama.  The  God  in 
Tibet  and  the  God  (as  he  was  actually  called)  at  Rome  would  have  been  in  every  respect  similar. 
Indeed,  I  should  be  glad  to  learn  wherein  the  difference  consists  between  the  adoration 1  paid  to 
the  Lama,  and  that  paid  by  the  cardinals  to  the  Pope  on  his  first  exaltation  on  the  altar  after  his 
instalment.  Modern  sophistry  may  talk  of  civil  adoration  :  the  understandings  of  mankind  having 
become  too  enlightened,  the  daring  violation  of  religion  and  decency  must  be  explained  away. 
But  the  practice  is  continued :  it  awaits  a  restoration,  by  the  holy  allies,  of  the  darkness  of  the 
tenth  century.  The  papal  policy  is  sometimes  suspended — it  never  dies.  In  more  senses  than 
one,  nullum  tempus  accurrit  ecclesice. 

It  would  be  giving  the  Christian  priests  too  much  credit  to  allow  them  the  merit  of  inventing 
these  engines  of  despotism  and  priestcraft ;  they  were  merely  imitators,  though  they  may  have 
improved  upon  the  originals  which  they  copied.  They  removed  some  absurdities,  they  added 
some  stimuli  \  but  all  the  doctrines  to  which  I  have  just  now  drawn  the  attention  of  the  reader, 
are  to  be  found  with  very  little  deviation  in  the  faith  of  the  oriental  nations,  and  from  them  they 
passed  to  the  Christians  through  the  medium  of  the  sects  of  Gnostics  and  Essenes,  both  of  which 
existed  among  the  natives  of  Asia  and  Africa  long  before  the  time  allotted  for  the  birth  of  Christ. 
Thus  I  think  the  seven  celebrated  sacraments  of  the  Romish  Christians,  in  which  the  two  held  by 
the  Protestants  are  included,  are  proved  to  be  nothing  but  renewed  Gentile  ceremonies,  that  is, 
integral  parts  of  the  usually  called  pestilent  and  idolatrous  superstition  of  the  Pagans. 

1  See  Eustace's  Classical  Tour. 


CHAPTER  II. 


REVENUES. — MONKS  AND  NUNS. — MITRE. — ZONE, — CASSOCK,— PRAYING  STANDING. — WHITE  SURPLICE. 
TITHES  PAID.  TONSURE  PRACTISED.  CROSIER,  &C.— CANDLES,  INCENSE.— PROCESSIONS.  IMAGES.  ST. 
ABRAHAM.— FESTIVALS. — EPIPHANY.  ST.  DENIS,  &C. — BAMBINO  AT  ROME.  DEDICATING  CHURCHES,  &C., 
&C.— BULLA,  AGNUS  DEI.  ANGELS.  DAEMONS. — SUNDAY,  DIES  SOLIS.  VARIOUS  CUSTOMS. 

1.  THE  revenues  of  the  Romish  priests  came  from  the  same  sources  as  those  of  the  sacrificers 
of  the  Pagans.     They  had  first  the  tithes,  then  offerings,  which  the  devotees  presented  to  the 
Gods,  which  they  took  and  applied  to  their  own  use.    But  as  the  offerings  were  casual,  and  not 
always  to  be  depended  on,  a  provision  was  made  from  the  public  revenue  for  the  different  orders, 
and  in  general  for  all  those  who  were  employed  about  the  offices  of  religion.    Besides  this,  many 
private  individuals  consecrated  their  property  to  the  same  purpose  \  so  that  rich  benefices  became 
founded  :  and  these  benefices  were,  as  they  are  with  us,  some  in  the  presentation  of  the  prince  or 
the  college  of  pontifices,  others  in  that  of  individuals  who  had  the  right  of  patronage.    And  as  at 
this  day,  complaints  against  pluralities  were  made.1      The  Pontifex  Maximus,  also,  had  the  right 
to  the  annates,  or  fruits  of  the  first  year,  which  he  might  sell  or  give  away.     Another  source  of 
wealth  was  found  in  the  legacies  left  by  those  who  wished  prayers  to  be  said  for  their  souls  after 
their  deaths,  which  is  proved  by  the  monuments  of  the  ancient  idolaters  still  remaining.    Here  is 
the  origin  of  the  Romish  prayers  for  the  dead.2      Another  source  of  wealth  arose  from  confisca- 
tions of  the  property  of  condemned  persons.    The  houses  and  property  of  Cicero  were  confiscated 
to  the  sacred  college  when  he  was  banished,  and  the  revenue  ordered  to  be  expended  in  sacrifices 
to  the  Goddess  of  liberty.    By  these  means  the  priests,  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  have  equally 
amassed  great  wealth. 

2.  The  Pagans,  besides  their  pontiffs,  their  priests,  and  their  curiones,  had  different  convents  or 
orders  of  religious  men  and  women,  who  took  the  epithet  of  holy  or  dim  :  some  called  themselves 
Quirini  from  Romulus,  others  Diales  from  Jupiter,  cwro  rs  A/o^,  others  Martiales  from  Mars. 
They  called  themselves  brothers,  because  they  were  bound  to  one  another  by  reciprocal  charity 
and  alliance, 3  and  were  all  on  an  equal  footing.    Thus,  at  this  day,  we  have  Jesuits,  Augustinians, 
Benedictines,  &c.    The  Monks  among  the  Pagans  were  proprietors  of  land.    T.  Livy  says,4  that 
Numa  iitstituted  the  Quirinales  and  tfoe  Vestals,  and  established  for  them  a  revenue.    Others 
were  Mendicants,  as  the  religious  of  the  Great  Mother  of  the  Gods,5   who  answered  exactly  to 
the  Christian  Mendicants  begging  for  the  Virgin,  the  Mother  of  God.    Apuleius,  in  his  Golden 
Ass,  has  ridiculed  them  for  their  hypocrisy,  by  which  they,  under  the  pretence  of  poverty,  acquired 
riches.    No  beggars  were  allowed  in  Home  except  these.    The  Romish  Mendicants,  like  those  of 
the  Pagans,  were  the  great  dealers  in  saints,  in  relics,  in  apostolic  letters,  indulgences,  and  other 
trumpery.    They  in  both  cases  had  particular  habits,  and  long  beards.     If  they  had  not  been 


*  Tit.  Liv.  Lib.  ix.  et  xxx.;  Cic.  de  Leg.  Lib.  i  ,  Suet,  in  Claudio. 

*  Blondus,  Rom.  Trium.  Lib.  ii.  p  33.  3  Alex,  ab  Alex.  Genial.  Lib.  i,  (Jap.  xxx\i. 
4  yb« l                                      5  Augustin,  de  Civit.  Dei,  Lib.  vil  Cap.  u. 


BOOK  II,    CHAPTER  II.    SECTION  5.  7J 

particularly  dressed  they  would  not  have  been  known  from  other  people,  says  Bellarmine. l  Their 
silence  was  an  exact  copy  of  the  silence  of  Pythagoras  \  and  their  vow  of  poverty  was  an  imitation 
of  that, of  some  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  who  distributed  all  their  substance  to  the  poor. 

The  Hierophantes,  at  Athens,  drank  of  the  Hemlock  to  render  themselves  impotent,  that  when 
they  came  to  the  Pontificate  they  might  cease  to  be  men.  The  priests  of  Egypt  never  mixed 
with  women,  and  to  extinguish  the  passion  for  the  female  sex  they  never  ate  flesh  or  drank 
wine.2  The  priests  of  the  Great  Mother  drank  of  a  certain  river  of  Phrygia,  which  putting  them 
in  a  fury  they  castrated  themselves,  and  thence  were  called  Semi-viri.  The  priests  of  Egypt  had 
their  fast  days,  when  they  abstained  from  flesh  and  wine.  The  priests  of  Eleusis  kept  strictly  the 
three  commandments  given  by  Triptolemus— to  honour  their  father  and  mother;  the  second,  to 
reverence  the  Gods  $  and  the  third,  to  eat  no  flesh.  Numa  established  fasts,  particularly  one  in 
honour  of  Ceres,  when  the  people  offered  up  their  prayers  for  a  good  harvest3  The  Pagan  fasts 
were  to  appease  the  Gods;  thus  Horace  says,  Mane  die  quo  tu  indids  jejunia.  From  these 
examples  we  see  the  origin  of  the  Romish  fasts. 

3.  The  father  Ange  de  S.  Joseph  speaks  of  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  in  the  following  terms:  "There 
"  are  many  inscriptions  on  the  marble  of  the  ruins,  but  in  characters  unknoxvn  to  all  the  universe, 
"  which  shews  their  great  antiquity.    Many  bas  reliefs  represent  the  divinities,  the  sacrifices,  the 
"  funeral  pomps,  processions  of  men  with  large  vests,  long  hair,  with  bonnels  in  form  of  a 
61  mitre"  4     From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  mitre  which  we  see  worn  by  the  priests  in  the 
Mithraitic  mysteries,  and  which  is  still  worn  on  grand  occasions  by  the  bishops  of  the  Romish  and 
Greek  churches,  is  of  very  ancient  establishment. 

4.  When  young  Persians  came  to  be  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  age,  prayer  and  ceremonies 
took  place,  and  they  were  invested  with  the  girdle.5      They  were  then  supposed  to  be  capable  of 
understanding  the  doctrines  of  the  religion.     It  was,  in  fact,  the  ceremony  of  confirmation. 

In  the  Sadder,  the  sacred  book  of  Zoroaster,  it  is  written,  that  God  has  commanded  the  girdle 
as  a  sign  of  the  obedience  which  is  due  to  him.6  It  was  believed  that  it  rendered  the  wearer  safe 
from  daemons.  All  the  Christians  of  the  Levant,  whether  Syrians,  Arabians,  Egyptians,  or  Coptes, 
believe  that  they  commit  a  sin  if  they  go  into  a  church  without  their  girdle. 7  They  found  this 
practice  upon  Luke  xii.  35.  The  monks  use  a  girdle  with  tweke  knots  to  shew  that  they  are 
followers  of  the  twelve  apostles  :  and  when  one  of  them  is  excommunicated  they  pull  off  his  girdle, 
When  the  Mohamedans  receive  into  their  communion  a  proselyte,  either  from  the  sect  of  the  Magi 
or  Christians,  they  cut  off  his  girdle,  which  he  in  future  disuses.  Thus  we  here  see  whence  the 
girdle  of  the  monks  is  taken.8 

5.  From  the  same  place  with  the  girdle  came  the  use  of  the  Cassock  or  Sudra.    From  Hyde  we 
learn  that  Zoroaster  is  reported  to  have  said  that  be  received  it  from  heaven  along  with  the  girdle: 
Hyde  describes  it  to  be  the  same  with  that  used  by  our  English  clergy,  and  shews  that  it  was 
from  the  girdle  that  we  derived  the  old  English  proverb— ungirt  unblessed, 9 

Concerning  the  Origin  of  the  Zone  and  Cassock  Hyde  10  says,  "  In  ejus  imperio  venit  Zerdusht 
"propheta,  coram  Gushtasp  prophetiam  praetendens,  eique  dicens:  Ego  sum  propheta  quern  Deus 


»  DeMon,  Lib.ii.  Cap.  xl.;  Socrates,  Lib.ii.  Cap.  xxxiii. ;  Hieron,  ad Eustach.  Vol.!  pp.  49, 50. 

2  Hieron.  Lib.  adv.  Jovin.  3  Liv,  Lib.  xxxv.  4  Beaus.  Vol  II.  Liv.  ii  Ch.  iv  p.  ^07 

*  Beans  Hist.  Man.  Vol  I.  Liv.  ii.  Ch,  iv,  p.  198.  6  Hyde  de  Rel  Vet.  Pers.  p.  44 1. 

7  Asscm.  Vol.  III.  Pt.  i.  p.  359.  8  D'Herbelot,  Bib  Orien.  p.  68 ;  see  also  the  word  Zounar. 

"  Hyde  de  Rel.  Vet.  Pers.  Cap.  xxx.  p.  370.  !0  Ibid.  Cap.  xxiv.  p.  3i>0,  cd,  1700. 


78      PRAYING  STANDING.-— WHITE  SURPLICE.      TITHES  PAID.      TONSURE  PRACTISED.      CROSIER,  &C. 

"  excelsus  ad  te  misil :  et  istum  librum  Zend-avest&  e  Paradise  attuli :  ct  hanc  Sudram  et 
"Cingulum  mihi  dedit,  inquiens,  istam  Sudram  indue,1  et  istud  Cingulum  in  medium  tuum 
"  cinge,  ut  anima  tna  a  Gehenn&  liberetur  et  salvationem  iuvemat;  Religionem  quoque  Dei  in 
"  mundo  propagate."  "  In  pihno  infantum  baptismate  imponitur  nomen :  et  postea  anno 
"  septimo  ut  quideni  aiunt,  vel  potius  anno  decimo  quinto  (quando  censetur  intrare  in  reli- 
"  gionem,)  turn  adhibitis  precibus  a  sacerdote  datur  confirmatio  solennis.  Et  eo  anno  decimo 
"  quinto  (ut  religionis  tessera)  eis  traditur  sudra,  seu  tunica,  et  cingulum,  quibus  nunquam,  ne 
"  per  unum  momentum  (nisi  in  lecto  sint)  destitui  debent,"*  "  Pueri  et  Puellae  post  quindecem 
"  annorum  aetatem  (ut  supra)  cingulum,  religionis  tesseram,  iuduere  incipiunt,  et  divina  praecepta 
"ejus  instillantur," 3  "Tunica  ciugitur  cingulo,  secundum  sacerdotalem  babitum  in  AngliA, 
"  excepto  colore."4  Hyde  states  that  the  stole  was  used  in  the  ntes  of  Mithra.  "  Mithra  ibi 
"  cst  in  figurfi,  regis  Persici,  uti  constat  ex  Tiarfi,  direct!  et  Stolfc,  quee  solis  regibus  competunt." 5 

6.  It  often  happens  that  trifling  circumstances  are  more  striking  than  those  of  more  conse- 
quence. The  identity  of  the  two  religions  being  evident,  they  are  le&s  likely  to  be  the  produce  of 
accident.  And  what  I  am  going  to  describe  are  of  so  out-of-the-way,  unexpected  a  kind,  that 
there  must  be  some  cause  for  the  similarity. 

From  Hyde  we  learn  that  the  ancient  Persians  set  apart  four  days  In  each  month  answering1  to 
the  Sabbath  days  of  the  Jews  and  to  our  Sundays,  which  were  festivals.  On  these  days  they  met 
in  their  churches,  and  had  more  solemn  service  than  on  other  days,  reading  portions  of  their  sacred 
book,  and  preaching  and  inculcating  morality  and  purity.  "  Habent  enim  suo  modo  liturgiam 
"  publicans,  quatn  certo  quodam  tono,  seu  piano  cantu,  inodulantur  et  cantillant,  sc.  certain  atque 
"  praeseriptam  precum  et  aliorum  rituum  formam."  He  also  says,  "  Ubi  post  peractam  prostra- 
"  tionem  (ut  fiebat  in  templo  Hierosolymitano)  STANTES  GRANT."  6  It  is  impossible  here  not  to 
be  struck  with  the  identity  of  the  Persian  and  Christian  services.  The  four  days  of  the  month,  the 
reading  of  portions  of  the  sacred  books,  the  preaching,  the  liturgia  publica,  the  praescripta  forma 
rituum  et  precum,  the  tono  seu  piano  cantu  of  the  Romish,  and  chaimting  of  the  Protestant  cathe- 
drals. But  perhaps  among  these  different  traits  of  resemblance  there  is  no  one  more  striking  than 
that  of  the  praying  standing  on  the  four  festival  days  of  the  month.7  The  early  Christians  always 
prayed  on  a  Sunday  standing.  Tertullian  says,  Die  dorninicd  jejunare  nefas  dticumis  vel  de 
gemculis  adorare. 8  In  Canon  sixteen,  °  worshiping  on  the  knees  on  Sunday  is  forbidden.  It 
says,  "  Porro  in  sanctis  dominicis  dicbus  sacrisque  aliis  solennitatibus  nullae  fiant  genuflexiones, 
qnia  Ma  sancta  ecdesia  in  hisce  l&tatur  et  exultat  diebus" 

7,  Silius,  speaking  of  the  strange  rites  used  in  the  Gaditan  temple  of  Hercules,  says,  the  priests 
officiated  there  barefooted,  practised  chasity,  had  no  statues,  used  white  linen  surplices ;  and  it 
was  a  notorious  custom  with  the  ancient  Phoenicians  to  pay  tithe.  The  shaving  of  the  head  and 
surplices  were  borrowed  from  the  Egyptian  priests,  and  the  crosier  or  pastoral  staff  was  the  Ktuus 
of  the  Roman  augurs. 10  The  toDbure  of  the  priests  and  monks  is  an  exact  imitation  of  that  of 
the  priests  of  Isis  5  «  and  St.  Epiphanius  witnesses  also, 12  that  the  priests  of  Serapis  at  Athens 

1  "  Sudra  est  Tunica  saccrdotalis  brevior,  Anglic^  a  Cassock,  ad  mediam  am  am  parting  ens." 

°-  Hyde  de  Rel.  vet  Pers.  Cap.  xxviii.  p.  350,  ed.  1700.  a  Ut  sup,  p  353. 

+  Ib.  Cap  xxx  p  370.  *  Ib.  Cap.iv.  p  119.  6  Ib.  Cap.  xxxviii,  p.  352 

7  This  beautiful  festival  our  wbsurd  modern  devotees,  who  are  as  ignorant  as  they  are  bigoted,  wish  to  change  from 
a  festival  to  a  day  of  humiliation.    In  my  Horse  Sabbaticse,  I  have  discussed  this  at  length. 

8  Tertul.  de  Cor.  Cap.  iiL  d  Cone.  NIC.  Pap.  Silvester  I.  A  D.  325, 

10  Priestley's  Hist.  Cor.  Vol  II.  p.  251f  ed.  1782.  n  Apul,  Asino  Aureo.  I2  Hser.  64. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  II.    SECTION  9.  79 

had  the  head  shaved.  This  custom  is  forbidden  in  Lev.  xxi.  5,  and  the  prohibition  is  afterwards 
repeated,  in  Ezek.  xliv.  20  3  for  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  nmp  qrte9  as  Rabbi  Solomon  on 
the  report  of  Buxtorf  has  noticed. 

The  habit  and  the  ornaments  of  the  ecclesiastics  at  this  day  have  been  copied  from  those  of  the 
ancient  Pagans.  The  cross  of  the  bishops  I  need  not  name  again.  The  Lituus  or  Crosier  was 
the  Hieralpha  of  the  Hindoos,  taken  from  the  cave  of  Bala-rama  near  Muttra,  and  seen  in  a 
variety  of  fantastic  forms  on  the  ancient  Egyptian  monuments.  It  is  often  united  to  the  cross 


thus  *\       J-     It  was  the  origin  of  the  jawbone  of  Samson.    It  was  the  first  rude,  ill-formed 


plough,  thus 

The  Amicts  and  Dotninos  of  the  bishops  came  from  the  same  place ;  for  the  Pagans  never 
made  any  sacrifice  without  having  the  head  covered  with  an  Amict,  which  they  called  Orarium, 
and  a  Superhumeral.  They  wore  also  an  Aube,  as  the  priest  does  when  he  goes  to  say  mass. l 
And  the  Flamens  were  clothed  with  a  robe  made  with  copes,  like  those  which  the  Romish  priests 
wear  in  the  churches, 2  The  Stole  is  an  imitation  of  that  which  they  put  on  the  back  of  the 
victims  which  they  offer  on  the  altar.  The  Cardinal  Baronius 3  has  remarked,  under  the  year  44 
of  our  Lord,  that  the  ancient  Pagans  had  the  surplice :  that  they  carried  the  pastoral  staff  called 
the  lituus  or  crosier  $  that  they  used  the  episcopal  ring  and  mitre ;  that  the  fiamen  or  priest  who 
sacrificed  was  clothed  in  a  garment  of  fine  linen,  called  by  the  Latins  Alba  Vestis  :  and  Juvenal, 
in  his  6th  Satire,  says,  that  the  high  priest  of  Anubis,  environed  with  a  crowd  of  other  priests 
clothed  in  fine  linen,  with  his  head  shaved,  deserves  the  first  rank  and  supreme  honour. 

8.  The  use   of  lamps  and  candles,  in   the  day-time,   in  the  churches,  was  copied  from  the 
Egyptians,  who,  according  to  Clemens  Alexandriims,  first  invented  them,4     No  person  can  look 
into  the  ancient  temples  of  India  and  Egypt  and  not  see  that  candles,  either  by  day  or  night, 
could  not  be  dispensed  with.    All  their  ceremonies  must  have  been  by  candle-light,  as  the  most 
sacred  parts  of  their  temples  had  no  windows  or  openings  to  admit  light.    During  the  delivery  of 
sermons  I  have  sometimes  met  with  churches,  in  Italy,  from  which  the  sun  was  entirely  excluded. 

The  use  of  incense  was  common  both  to  Jews  and  Gentiles. 

Saepe  Jovera  vidi  cum  jam  sua  mittere  vellet 
Fulmina,  tkure  dato  sustintiisse  manunu* 

Alex,  ab  Alexandro  says,0  that  the  Egyptians  appeased  their  Gods  with  prayers  and  incense. 

9.  The  processions  around  the  streets  and  towns,  in  Catholic  countries,  are  exact  imitations  of 
those  of  the  Pagans.    When  the  priests  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods  made  their  processions  through 
the  streets,  they  carried  the  image  of  Jupiter,  which  they  placed  for  a  short  time  in  small  bowers 
dressed  out  for  him,  precisely  as  is  done  in  Paris  at  the  F6te  Dieu.    Virgil,  in  the  first  book  of  his 
Georgics,7   recommends  the  peasants  to  carry  the  statue  of  Ceres  round  their  fields  : 

** „  Aniwa  magnse 

"  Sacra  refer  Cereri,"  &c. 
**  Terque  novas  circum  felix  eat  hostia  fruges," 

Further  accounts  of  the  Heathen  processions  may  be  seen  in  Apuleius. 8 

* 
1  Plut.  in  Aut.  Fenestrelle,  Chap,  v.  *  Du  Verdier  en  ses  Leqons,  Liv.  ii.  Ch.  fo  p,  86. 

*  Noticed  by  Marolles  in  his  Memoirs,  4  Strom,  i.  *  Ovid's  Fasti,  5. 

6  Qea.  Dieruro,  Lib.  ii.  Cap,  xarii.  7  Lines  338,  339,  345. 

8  Lib.  ii.  Metam.  p.  200,  edit.  Piautin,  1587;  alsoPolyd.  Virgil,  Cap,  xi.  p.  414. 


80  PROCESSIONS.      IMAGES*      ST.   ABRAHAM. 

As  the  Roman  Church  has  its  processions  for  rain  or  fair  weather,  or  to  avert  tempests  or 
famine,  &c.,  so  the  Pagans  had  theirs  exactly  in  the  same  manner;  they  are  copies  of  one 
another. 

Though  it  may  be  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  identity  of  the  practices  of  the  modern  and 
ancient  Romans  in  the  use  of  images,  yet  it  may  not  be  unnecessary  to  observe,  that  precisely  the 
same  reasons  were  given  in  excuse  for  the  use  of  them.  Gregory  I.,  against  Serenus,  bishop  of 
Marseilles,  says,  that  what  books  are  to  those  who  can  read,  pictures  and  statues  are  to  those  who 
are  ignorant  of  the  art.  Porphyry,  in  Eusebius,  justifies  images  on  the  same  ground.  He  says 
they  are  the  books  of  the  ignorant.  Theodoret  on  this  subject  says,  that  the  demon  invented 
images  for  the  use  of  the  ignorant,  that  by  this  means  he  might  establish  his  superstition.  There 
is  no  person,  says  Celsus,1  so  foolish  and  absurd  as  to  believe  that  these  things  are  really  Gods, 
and  not  the  symbols  which  we  adore  in  honour  of  the  deity.  And  in  Aruobius,2  the  Pagan  says 
to  the  Christian^  "  You  deceive  yourselves  5  for  we  believe  not  the  brass,  the  gold,  and  the  silver, 
"  which  compose  the  statues,  are  God :  but  we  serve  God  in  them,  and  we  venerate  the  Gods  as 
"  dwelling  in  them,  by  virtue  of  consecration."  Constantine,  bishop  of  Constance,  in  the  second 
Council  of  Nice,  declared,  "  For  myself  I  render  to  images  the  same  worship  of  honour  which  is 
"  due  to  the  Holy  Trinity :  and  let  him  be  anathematized  as  a  Marcionite  and  Manichaean  who 
"  shall  refuse  to  do  the  same."3 

The  Chiistians  have  not  only  copied  the  practices  of  bowing  down  to  the  idols  of  their  great 
men  deified  or  elevated  to  the  rank  of  inferior  Gods  or  heavenly  personages,  but  they  have  in 
many  cases  adopted  the  very  persons  adored  by  the  Heathens.  They  have  not  only  adopted  the 
same  practices  of  the  apotheosis,  but  they  have  done  it  with  the  same  rites  and  ceremonies,  and 
given  the  same  attributes  to  their  deceased  great  men.  The  ancients  raised  such  of  their  great 
men  or  kings  to  the  rank  of  inferior  Gods  as  had  been  benefactors  to  mankind,  or  as  they  chose  to 
flatter,  calling  them  by  the  title  of  divus.  The  souls  of  their  emperors,  if  deified,  were  seen  to  fly 
away  to  heaven,  in  the  form  of  a  bird,  from  the  body,  when  placed  on  the  funeral  pile  :  thus,  in  a 
&imilar  manner  the  soul  of  St.  Poly  carp,  when  he  was  burnt,  was  seen  in  the  form  of  a  dove  to 
wing  its  way  to  the  mansions  of  the  blessed,  and  he  became  divus  Polycaip.  Thus  like  divus 
Augustus,  the  apostles  all  became  divi;  as  Divus  Paulus,  Divus  Petrus,  &c. 

The  Roman  Divi  were  considered  only  as  created  inferiores  divi,  and  intercessors  with  the 
Supreme  God,  but  residents  of  the  heavenly  mansions.  This  is  exactly  the  case  with  the  Christian 
Divi  i  they  are  considered  only  as  intercessors,  but  residents  of  the  heavenly  mansions ;  while  the 
remainder  of  mankind  are  excluded  from  these  abodes  till  the  day  of  judgment.  The  relics  of  the 
Divi  of  each  also  received  adoration,  and,  at  times,  worked  miraculous  cures.  They  both  had 
altars  erected  to  them,  with  lights  constantly  burning  before  them.  Their  festivals  were  kept  on 
set  days  peculiarly  dedicated  to  them,  and  the  images  themselves  were  in  many  cases  considered 
to  be  animated,  and  to  possess  and  exercise  a  supernatural  power,  I  had  in  my  possession  a  book, 
which  I  have  given  to  the  British  Museum,  published  by  the  authority  of  Pope  Pius  the  Sixth,  in 
which  the  miracles  performed  by  a  great  number  of  images  are  described  :  they  opened  their  eyes, 
they  wept,  they  spoke,  they  performed  cures.  Some  of  them  are  considered  more  powerful  than 
others,  and  in  consequence  acquire  more  votive  offerings,  which  are  given  to  them  in  some  cases, 
as  at  Loretto,  to  an  immense  amount  both  in  number  and  value.  It  cannot  be  said  that  these  are 
merely  the  idle  superstitions  of  the  vulgar.  The  book  alluded  to  was  published  by  the  authority  of 


'  Oiig.eont  Cels.  Lib.  vii   pp,  387  and  285,  292. 

*  Lib,  vi.  p.  229,  ex  edit   Fiol  ;  see  also  Lact.  Lib,  ii,  Cap.  ii,  3  Act  4,  a  little  from  the  end. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  II.   SECTION  10.  81 

the  Pope  and  Roman  Church,  the  miracles  were  all  proved  before  a  commission  of  cardinals,  at  the 
head  of  which  was  Cardinal  Somaglia,  and  the  genuineness  of  the  book  itself  is  actually  ascertained 
beyond  dispute  by  the  WRITTEN  attestation  and  signature  of  the  register  of  the  Papal  chancery. 

Enlightened  men,  both  Greeks  and  Romists,  will  be  offended  at  hearing  the  term  idolatry 
applied  to  the  believers  in  their  religions.  But  there  is  in  reality  no  difference  between  the  icon 
worship  of  the  ancients  and  that  of  the  moderns.  The  enlightened  men  of  this  day  are  not 
idolaters,  nor  were  the  Ciceros  nor  Plinys  of  ancient  times,  but  the  rabble,  genteel  and  ungenteel, 
who  believe  in  the  miracles  of  the  images,  and  honour  them  with  their  votive  offerings,  most 
certainly  are.  It  is  childish  to  dispute  about  the  mere  word  or  name  given  to  the  practice. 
Whatever  the  ancients  did  to  their  images,  the  moderns  do  to  theirs  ;  and  in  whatever  light  the 
ancients  considered  them,  and  with  whatever  attributes  they  endowed  them— precisely  in  the  same 
light  and  with  the  same  attributes  the  moderns  view  and  endow  them.  The  demigods  of  the 
ancients  are  correctly  the  saints  of  the  moderns,  and  both  bear  the  name  of  Divi. 

The  aywActTf  e*a  of  the  Greek  and  Roman,  as  well  indeed  as  that  of  the  Protestant  Church,  is 
nothing  more  than  a  servile  imitation  of  the  AaifiotfoXar^sjct  or  Aeio-iSaj/wwa  of  the  Gentiles ; 
the  proof  of  this  may  be  seen  at  great  length  in  Gale's  Court  of  the  Gentiles,  * 

On  the  adoration  of  saints  Bochart  says,  "  They  have  transferred  to  their  saints  all  the  equipage 
*c  of  the  Pagan  Gods :  to  St.  Wolfang  the  hatchet,  or  hook  of  Saturn :  to  Moses  the  horns  of 
"  Jupiter  Hammon  :  to  St.  Peter  the  keys  of  Janus.  In  brief,  they  have  chased  away  all  the  Gods 
"out  of  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  to  place  in  their  room  all  the  Saints;  whose  images  they  worship 
"  with  like  devotion  as  those  of  the  Pagan  Gods  sometimes  were.  They  dress  them  up  in  ap- 
"  parel,  they  crown  them  with  garlands  of  flowers,  they  carry  them  in  procession,  they  bow  before 
"  them,  they  address  their  prayers  to  them,  they  make  them  descend  from  heaven,  they  attribute 
"  to  them  miraculous  virtues."2  Bochart  then,  in  support  of  his  assertion  that  the  Romish  adora- 
tion of  saints  is  nothing  but  a  renewal  of  the  adoration  of  the  Pagan  damans,  observes,  that  the 
Canonization  of  Saints  is  correctly  the  Apotheosis  of  the  Pagans,  and  that  Cajetan's  Gods  by  parti- 
cipation are  the  very  same  as  Plato's  ®so*  ysvv^ro*,  made  Gods,  which  is  the  title  he  gives  to  his 
dasmons.  All  these  saints,  when  they  were  determined  to  be  fit  objects  of  canonization,  were 
deemed  to  have  been  possessed  of  divine  inspiration  or  the  afflatus,  in  a  fuller  degree  than  common 
priests,  all  of  whom  have  a  portion  of  the  Holy  Ghost  or  the  afflatus  numinis  instilled  into  them  at 
their  ordination  by  the  imposition  of  the  bishops'  hands.  These  inspirations  or  entrances  into  the 
flesh  of  portions  of  the  divine  spirit  are  correctly  the  minor  Incarnations  or  Avatars  of  the  Hindoos, 
who  say,  there  have  been  thousands  of  incarnations  or  avatars  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

Among  the  saints  of  the  Roman  church  we  have  Saint  Abraham  and  Mary  his  niece.  He  came 
from  a  place  called  Edessa  in  Mesopotamia.  He  was  considered  as  a  saint  in  the  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Coptic  churches.3  His  holiday  is  the  15th  of  March.  If  we  make  allowance  for  the  old  style, 
this  brings  him  to  the  25th  of  March,  the  Vernal  Equinox.  We  need  not  repeat  what  has  been 
proved  respecting  Maria,  the  queen  of  heaven,  being  the  generative  power.  We  here  have  her 
identified  with  Sarah,  the  wife  of  the  Brahmin,  which  serves  to  prove  the  mythological  charac- 
ter of  Abraham  and  Sarah,  who  are  evident  enough  in  these  two  saints.4 

10.  The  Pagans  had  their  festival  days  in  honour  of  their  country  or  local  Gods  ;  these 


1  Vol.  III.  Book  ii.  Ch.  ii.  Sect.  iii.  p.  184. 

*  Bochart  against  Veron,  p.  3,  Ch.  xxv,  p.  888;  Gale's  Court  Gent,  Vol.  III.  Book  ii.  Ch.  ii,  Sect  iv. 

*  Butler's  Lives  of  the  Saints.  *  See  Vol.  I.  pp,  98,  162,  305,  387,  391,  646,  64?,  697,  698,    Editor. 
VOL,  II,  M 


82  FESTIVALS. 

exactly  imitated  by  the  Christians  in  their  wakes  and  revels,  which  were  kept  in  honour  of  pre- 
tended martyrs,  the  names  of  many  of  whom,  being  the  exact  names  of  the  heathen  Gods,  suffi- 
ciently explain  what  they  were. 

The  Goddess  Februa,  or  the  Februata  Juno,  became  the  Purificata  Virgo  Maria.  The  old 
Romans  celebrated  this  festival  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  the  moderns— by  processions  with 
wax  lights,  &c.,  and  on  the  same  day,  the  2cl  of  February.  The  author  of  the  Perennial  Calendar 
observes,  that  it  is  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  the  festival  of  the  miraculous  conception  of  Juno 
Jugalis,  the  blessed  Virgin,  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  should  fall  on  the  very  day  the  modern  Romans 
have  fixed  the  festival  of  the  conception  of  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary.  Being  merely  a  continuation 
of  an  ancient  festival,  there  is  nothing  remarkable  in  it. 

In  the  autumn  a  very  peculiar  festival  was  celebrated  by  almost  all  nations  in  honour  of  the 
dead. 

On  the  2d  of  November  tlizfestum  Dei  Mortis  is  annually  celebrated.  The  priest  makes  a  pro- 
cession round  the  burial-ground^  with  his  censer  and  aspersorio,  sprinkling  holy  water  and  singing 
a  miserere  as  he  goes  along.  This,  again,  is  nothing  more  than  a  heathen  ceremony. 

This  festival  is  yet  annually  celebrated  by  the  Buddhists  of  Tibet,  by  the  Papists  at  Rome,  and 
has  yet  its  service  and  day  in  the  calendar  of  the  Protestant  church  of  England.1  Mr.  Turner2 
informs  us,  that  on  the  last  days  of  October  and  first  of  November  an  annual  festival  is  kept,  which 
is  sacred  to  the  souls  of  the  dead.  All  the  monasteries  are  lighted  up  and  great  ceremonies  take 
place  among  the  monks.  It  appears  that  this  festival  is  kept  at  the  same  time  in  Bengal  and  Hin- 
dostan.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  festival  was  anciently  kept  by  the  Druids  in  Ireland,  and  is  yet 
continued  there.  In  Ireland  it  was  called  the  festival  of  Samhan,  lasted  two  days,  and  was  begun 
to  be  celebrated  on  the  evening  preceding  the  first  of  November,  which  evening  is  yet  called 
Oidhche  Samhna,  or  the  night  of  Samhan,  This  solemnity  was  consecrated  by  the  Druids  to  the 
intercession  of  the  living  for  the  souls  of  those  who  had  died  the  year  preceding  that  day;  for, 
according  to  their  doctrine,  Samhan  called  before  him  these  souls,  and  passed  them  to  the  man- 
sions of  the  blessed,  or  returned  them  to  a  re-existence  here  as  a  punishment  for  their  crimes, a 
This  Samhan  was  also  called  Bal-Sab  or  Lord  of  Death.  This  is  the  Beelzebub  of  the  Christians. 
On  this  festival  all  the  fires,  except  the  sacred  fires  of  the  Druids,  were  extinguished,  and  every 
one  was  prohibited,  under  the  most  terrible  penalties,  from  procuring  this  indispensable  article  in 
any  way  except  from  them,  for  which  a  stipulated  price  was  paid. 4  This  festival  is  even  yet 
partly  continued  by  the  Irish,  who  light  great  fires  on  the  tops  of  their  mountains,  and  pass  their 
children  and  flocks  through  them  to  Beal  or  Samhan,  as  described  in  the  Old  Testament  to  Bel  or 
Baal.5  The  Irish  call  this  festival  Bealtine,  or  the  feast  of  the  fires  of  Baal.  This  solemnity  is 
what  we  call  All-Souls'  Day,  Gen.  Vallancey  says,0  "  it  was  called  La  Samhna  or  Hallowmas- Day. 
**  The  Druids  taught  the  Pythagorean  system  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  and  that  Samhan  or 
"Baal  Samhan,  at  this  season  called  the  souls  to  judgment,  which  according  to  their  merits  or 
a  demerits  in  the  life  past,  were  assigned  to  re-enter  the  bodies  of  the  human  or  brute  species, 
u  and  to  be  happy  or  miserable  during  their  next  abode  on  this  sublunary  globe:  hence  Samhan 

1  All-Saints'  Day— united  with  All  Souls*.    Tkis  festival  was  also  kept  by  the  Mexicans.    See  p.  31.    Editor. 
8  In  the  account  of  his  Journey  to  Tibet,  p.  318.  a  ceitic  Druids,  Ch.  v.  Sect,  xvii, 

4  Samhain,  All-Saints'  Eve,  geuit  Samhna.    Oidhche  Shainhna,  All-Saints'  Eve.    (O'Brien's  Diet.)  Sainhain,  SHAW 
and  LHYD,  Arch,  Brit,,  La  Samhna,  Hallowmas-day,  Macdomtld's  Vocab. 

*  Jeremiah  xix.  5,  xxxii.  35;  see  also  on  Molech,  Lev,  xviii.  21,  xx*  2— 4$  2  Kings  xxih.  10.    Editor. 
c  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  III.  p.  444. 


BOOK  II,     CHAPTER  II.    SECTION  10.  83 

ts  was  named  [by  the  Irish]  Balsab  or  Dominus  Mortis,  for  Bal  is  Lord,  and  Sab  death.  But  the 
"  punishment  of  the  wicked  they  thought  might  be  alleviated  by  charms  and  magic  art,  and  by 
cf  sacrifices  made  by  their  friends  to  Bal,  and  presents  to  the  Druids  for  their  intercession." 

"  It  has  been  the  opinion  of  some  learned  men,  that  the  Baal-Zebub  of  the  idolatrous  Jews  was 
ce  the  God  of  fiies  or  locusts,  as  the  LXX,  have  translated  it  Deum  Mu7av3  muscam,  or  Moiaygov 
"  muscarum  avemincum.  Basnage  is  singular  in  supposing  this  deity  to  be  Mars,  or  the  God  of 
"  Battles  and  of  Arms,  because,  says  he,  the  Phoenicians  might  readily  convert  r»K^2f  tsalath  into 
"  Ml  Zebub.  The  Irish  or  Iberno-Celtic  retains  both  5  for  sab  is  death,  and  also  strong,  potent, 
"  valiant ,•  so  in  Hebrew  *O3f  tsaba  militia  $  in  Arabic,  zab,  repelling  by  force 5  zaMn,  a  life  guard- 
"  man,  and  zaaf9  death;  but  our  Hiberno  Druids  retaining  Balsab  synonymous  to  Samhan,  it  is 
"  evident,  Baal-Zebub  is  Domuius  Mortis."  1  The  day  following  is  the  festival  of  Satnhau,  to  whom 
black  sheep  were  offered  in  sacrifice.2  This  festival  lasted  till  the  beginning  of  December,  which 
was  named  Mi  NOJLAGH,  or  the  mouth  of  the  new  born,  from  the  Hebrew  word  nVw  nule  Nolah, 
i.  e.  parire,  to  bring  forth  young  ;  whence  the  French  word  NOEL,  and  the  Irish  NOLAGH,  Christ- 
mas-day. This  was  a  month  of  great  rejoicing,  as  the  former  was  of  mourning.3  The  Persians 
light  fires  in  their  temples,  &c.,  on  the  day  answering  to  the  2d  of  November,  precisely  as  the 
Irish  did,  and  yet  do.4 

Dr.  Hyde5  states,  that  this  custom  is  continued  among  the  fire  worshipers  or  Guebres  of  Persia 
at  this  day:  and  he  observes,  that  he  learns  from  the  Talmud,  that  this  practice  was  adopted  by 
the  Israelites  when  they  were  in  captivity  in  that  country  among  the  Medes,  who  are  called  Persse. 
It  continues  two  days,  because  it  begins  on  the  eve,  as  the  Buddhist  book  of  Genesis  reckons  time, 
"and  the  evening  and  the  morning  tuere  the  first  day;"  not  the  morning  and  the  evening.  The 
identity  of  the  religious  rites  in  the  East  and  West,  I  am  justified  in  here  reasserting,  cannot  be 
doubted.  Among  the  Druids  of  Ireland,  the  same  doctrines  of  a  Creator,  Preserver,  and  Destroyer, 
are  found,  and  many  of  the  Gods  have  the  same  names : 6  for  instance — Samhan,  Bud,  Chandra, 
Om,  Eswara,  Cali,  &c. 

The  Mohamedans  have  this  festival  as  well  as  the  Hindoos  and  Christians  \  but  this  is  not  sur- 
prising, as  they  are  merely  a  sect  of  the  latter. 

Now  I  beg  my  reader  to  recollect  what  he  has  read  in  the  Preliminary  Observations  respecting 
the  festival  of  the  Vernal  Equinox,  when  the  sun  was  in  Taurus. 7  This  was  evidently  the  coun- 
terpart of  it — the  festival  of  the  Autumnal  Equinox — exactly  six  months  from  the  former.  At  the 
Vernal  Equinox  began  the  empire  of  glory,  of  happiness,  of  the  good  principle,  of  Oromasdes  j  at 
the  Autumnal  Equinox  began  the  empire  of  the  evil  principle,  of  Arhiman,  and  Bal-Sab.  No  one 
can  for  a  moment  doubt  the  meaning  of  the  festival  $  and  its  universal  celebration  and  reception 
would  fully  confirm  what  is  said  from  Mr.  Maurice  respecting  the  Tauric  festival,  in  the  Prelimi- 
nary Observations,  if  confirmation  were  wanting.  The  identity  of  the  religious  rite,  in  both  East 


1  Vail.  Col  Hib.  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  447,  448,  &c.  *  Ibid,  and  see  Viigii's  Geor.  Lib,  iv,  547. 

3  Vail,  tit  sup.    Vide  ParLhurst  for  root  i^  and  Frev,  under  word  "rVi:i. 

4  Maur  Hist.  Hind.  Vol.  II.  p,  89,  ed  4to.    For  some  curious  remarks  about  the  Childermas,  or  the  Feast  of  the 
Innocents,  see  Vallancey,  ut  sup,  VoL  III.  p,  446.    This  relates  to  the  %  bishop  in  some  of  our  cathedrals.    The 
month  of  November  is  called  in  Ireland  JVh  Samhan,  month  of  Samhan,  or  Mi  dubh,  month  of  sorrow  or  grief,    The 
Welsh  call  it  y  mis  du9  the  month  of  grief.    For  explanation  of  feammael  and  Samhan,  (perhaps  Esmin  ?)  Beelzebub, 
Pluto,  Asima,  see  Vail  ut  sup  pp  448,  &c ,  and  for  every  thing  relating  to  the  first  and  second  of  November. 

3  De  Religione  Vet,  Pers,  j  Vail.  Coll.  Hib.  VoL  IV.  p.  346.  6  Vide  Celtic  Druids,  Ch.  v.  Sect.  xxvh. 

7  VoL  I  pp.  24—26. 

M2 


84  EPIPHAKY.       ST,  DENIS,   &C. 

and  West,  is  striking,  and  proves  the  wide  extent  of  the  Buddhist  religion  ;  but  it  is  chiefly  im- 
portant in  fixing  the  chronology.  It  must  have  taken  place  by  the  true  Zodiac  about  4680  years 
before  Christ. 

The  priests  disguise  to  their  votaries,  and  perhaps  to  themselves,  the  identity  of  the  Christian 
and  Gentile  festivals,  by  pretending  that  one  of  the  Popes  ordered  the  missionaries  to  fix  the  birth- 
days of  the  saints  to  the  heathen  festival^  to  humour  the  prejudice  of  the  Heathen,  and  thus,  by 
degrees,  to  draw  them  into  Christianity.  But  here  is  the  doctrine  of  prayers  for  the  dead  as  well 
as  the  ceremony  on  the  same  day.  Bebides,  the  very  fact  of  the  Pope  ordering  it  on  a  certain  spe- 
cified occasion,  goes  very  far  to  prove  that  it  was  not  the  general  practice.  So  far  were  the  early 
Christians  from  adopting  Heathen  ceremonies,  that  they  would  not  intentionally  even  call  the 
months  of  the  year  or  the  days  of  the  week  by  their  usual  names,  for  fear  they  should  pollute  their 
mouths  by  those  names,  particularly  that  of  Venus,  which  is  a  practice  still  continued  by  the 
society  of  Quakers.  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  who  lived  in  the  third  century,  is  commended  by 
Gregory  Nyssenus,  for  thus  changing  the  Pagan  festivals  into  Christian  holidays. l 

1 1 ,  We  Protestants  keep  The  Ey>ipliany>  pretending  that  it  is  the  manifestation  of  Christ  to  the 
Gentiles.  Isaac  Casauban  shall  tell  us  what  it  is.2  "  Baronius  errs,  in  that  he  judgeth,  that  the 
"  Epiphany  was  instituted,  in  the  primitive  time,  in  commemoration  of  the  Magi,  their  appari- 
"  tion.  This  opinion  is  refuted,  first  by  the  very  appellation  of  Epiphanies,  and  thence  by  the 
"  use  of  authors  and  history.  The  appellation  S7n<pavsJa>i>?  of  Epiphanies,  was  brought  into  eccle- 
"  siastic  observation  from  Pagan  rites,  on  a  pious  account.  Greek  writers  call  sTrifyavsioiv,  Epipha- 
"  nie,  the  apparition  of  a  deity,  whatever  the  manner  were  by  which  such  a  deity  was  supposed  to 
have  given  some  sign  of  his  presence."  Diodorus  says,  ee  That  Isis  was  wont  to  appear  by  night : 
cc  and  Dionysius  Halicarnassus  greatly  reprehended  such  as  derided  the  epiphanies  of  the  Gods 
"  by  which  they  manifest  themselves  to  men.  In  commemoration  of  these  apparitions  the  Gre- 
"  cians  instituted  certain  festivals  which  they  called  Epiphanies.  The  Greek  church  has  its 
"  Epiphany  on  the  sixth  of  January/' 3 

At  St.  Denis,  near  Paris,  the  God  Bacchus  or  Afoj/ixro£  is  worshiped  under  the  name  of  St. 
Denis.  At  Ancona,  on  the  top  of  the  promontory,  Bacchus  is  worshiped  under  the  name  of  Liber 
and  Liberius. 4 

1  Priestley's  Hist  Cor.  Vol.  L  p.  336.  Speaking  of  the  two  classes  into  which  society  is  divided  in  Tibet,  Mr. 
Turner  (Travels,  p.  25/)  says,  "  Both,  united  in  one  common  bond  of  union,  the  one  part  to  labour,  the  other  to  pray, 
"  enjoy  in  peace  and  harmony  the  fruits  of  their  industry  5  and  find  it  unnecessary  to  support  a  single  man  in  arms, 
"  either  to  defend  their  territory  or  maintain  their  rights."  This  is  as  it  should  be— the  Drones  and  the  Bees ;  idle 
priests  and  industrious  slaves  Here  every  one  moves  in  his  proper  sphere  I 

4  Exercit.  2,  An.  1,  Num.  36.  3  Gale's  Court  of  Gent  Vol.  Ill,  Bk.  ii.  Ch.  ii.  Sect.  iii.  pp  192,  193. 

4  Seveial  temples  have  probably  stood  together  which  are  now  all  formed  into  one  church  of  Gothic  architecture. 
In  a  crypt,  on  the  left  side  as  a  person  enters,  is  a  magnificent  sarcophagus  of  brass,  of  modern  workmanship,  with  the 
words  upon  it  CORPXJS  SANCTI  LIBERY  OONP  In  the  front  of  it,  under  the  Roman  arches,  stands  an  altar,  at  which 
a  priest  \\ as  officiating  when  I  was  there.  On  the  wall  opposite  is  a  MODERN  Latin  inscription,  which  informs  its 
reader  that  St  Liberius  was  an  Armenian :  Liberim  ex  Armen.  Regum  stirpe  ortus  S&c.  PL  In  the  word  LIBERY 
the  last  letter  in  one  place  being  Y  and  in  another  U,  the  lower  part  wanting,  proves,  notwithstanding  the  care  to 
prevent  mistakes  displayed  by  the  monks  in  the  modern  inscription,  that  this  S.  LiUerius  was  no  other  than  Bacclms- 
Libei  In  the  crypt  on  the  light  side  as  you  enter  the  chuich  is  a  very  ancient  sarcophagus  of  stone  This,  I  suspect, 
in  former  times,  hab  held  the  body  of  the  God.  It  has  had  two  inscriptions,  one  in  the  stone  now  erased  with  a  chisel, 
the  other  in  metal,  which  hab  been  removed,  the  marks  of  the  rivets  remaining.  I  suppose  the  temples  under  the 
decrees  of  Theodosius,  &c ,  weie  all  thiown  down,  and  from  their  ruins  the  present  church  was  built;  and  amongst 
the  ruins  were  found  the  fine  columns  of  marble  and  the  sarcophagus  with  the  inscription  Corpus  S.  Libery  and,  if  it 
liad  any  where  upon  it,  as  it  probably  had,  or  if  there  was  found  any  where  near  it,  the  cross  or  the  monogram  of 
Bacchus,  this  would  be  thought  to  prove  the  deceased  a  Christian  confessor.  For,  as  the  Christians  adopted  the 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  II.   SECTION  11.  85 

1  must  draw  my  reader's  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the  ancients  had  their  miracles  performed  at 
the  shrines  of  their  saints,  Divi,  just  as  commonly  as  the  Christians  at  the  shrines  of  their  saints. 

The  identity  of  some  of  the  Romish  Saints  and  the  Heathen  Gods,  is  in  no  instance  more 
ridiculously  exhibited  than  in  that  of  St.  Denis  or  Dionysus,  the  ancient  Bacchus  j  even  Mr. 
Faber  is  obliged  to  allow  it.  He  says, l 

"  Dionysus  is  cut  in  pieces  by  the  Maenades  on  the  top  of  Mount  Parnassus  :  Denis  is  put  to 
"  death  in  the  same  manner  on  the  summit  of  Montmartre.  Dionysus  is  placed  on  a  tomb,  and 
a  his  death  is  bewailed  by  women :  the  mangled  limbs  of  Denis  are  collected  by  holy  females, 
"  who  weeping  consign  him  to  a  tomb,  over  which  is  built  the  abbey  church  that  bears  his  name. 
Ge  Dionysus  experiences  a  wonderful  restoration  to  life,  and  quits  the  coffin  within  which  he  had 
"  been  confined :  Denis  rises  again  from  the  dead,  replaces  his  severed  head  to  the  amazement  of 
*<  the  spectators,  and  then  deliberately  walks  away.  On  the  southern  gateway  of  the  abbey,  the 
tfc  whole  history  of  this  surprising  martyrdom  is  represented.  A  sculptured  sprig  of  the  vine, 
a  laden  with  grapes,  is  placed  at  the  feet  of  the  holy  man  :  and  in  all  parts  may  be  seen  the  same 
*e  tree  blended  with  tigers  and  associated  with  a  hunting  match.  Such  numerous  and  close 
"  coincidences  prevent  the  possibility  of  doubting  the  identity  of  the  God  Dionysus  and  the 
ef  monkish  saint  Dionysius.  Were  I  more  conversant  in  the  hagiographa  of  the  Latin  church  I 
*'  might  perhaps  be  able  to  produce  many  other  similar  instances/' 

There  is  no  doubt  that  at  the  town  of  St.  Denis,  the  Romans  had  some  kind  of  a  temple  to  the 
Divus  Dionysus  or  Bacchus,  whence  the  ignorance  and  roguery  of  the  priests  made  a  saint,  a 
Divus  Denis,  with  all  his  traditionary  adventures. 

Near  Naples  the  universe  is  worshiped  under  the  name  of  St.  Cosmo — Kocrp>£. 2 

The  custom  of  putting  D.  M.,  for  the  words  Dls  Manibus,  on  monuments  and  grave-stones,  is 
continued  all  over  Italy.  In  the  church  of  St.  Clement,  at  Rome,  I  observed  the  actual  words 
Dls  Manibus  upon  a  grave-stone ;  the  letters  had  not  long  been  filled  up  with  a  hard  cement,  to 
disguise  them  5  but  they  were  sufficiently  evident.  No  doubt  at  every  Jubilee,  when  the  churches 
are  repaired,  some  remnant  of  Heathenism  is  erased. 

The  way  in  which  the  Christians  have  made  their  saints  is  perfectly  laughable.  An  explanation 
of  them  may  be  seen  in  Dupuis.3  He  shews  how  they  have  made  their  St.  Bacchus  and  Liber, 
Dionysius— Eleutherius,  Busticus— marked  in  the  calendar,  7th  Oct,  fest.  S.  Bacchi,  8th  festum 
S.  Demetri,  and  the  9th  fest.  S.  S*  Dionysii,  Eleutherii  et  Rustici. 

In  the  Dyonysiacs,  of  Nonnus,  the  God  Bacchus  is  feigned  to  have  fallen  in  love  with  the  soft, 
genial  breeze,  under  the  name  of  Aura  PJacida.  Out  of  this  they  have  made  the  saints  Aura  and 
Placida.  This  festival  is  on  the  fifth  of  October,  close  to  the  festival  of  St.  Bacchus,  and  of  St. 
Denis  the  Areopagite. 

monogram  of  Bacchus  for  their  monogram,  wherever  it  was  found,  the  ignorant  monks,  thousands  of  whom  in  ancient 
times  could  neither  read  nor  write,  immediately  determined  that  it  denoted  a  martyr  or  confessor  of  their  religion. 
The  monks  were  not  necessarily  in  the  modern  Romish  ordeis,  and  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity  very  few  of  them 
were  Bomish  priests.  As  they  found  it  increased  their  influence  they  gradually  got  into  the  way  of  receiving  the 
Romish  ordination ;  and,  as  the  Popes  found  them  a  formidable  body,  after  much  quarrelling  they  formed  an  union 
with  them,  if  indeed  the  monks  did  not  actually  conquer  the  Popes,  and  get  possession  of  the  Papacy. 

1  Pag.  Idol.  Bk.  v.  Ch,  viii. 

4  The  particulars  of  this  Saint  may  be  found  in  a  letter  published  in  the  Preface  to  Mr.  Payne  Knight's  book  on  the 
Phallic  worship.  He  was  adored  with  the  ancient  Phallic  rites.  In  the  mean  time,  when  Sir  W,  Hamilton  was  at 
Naples,  great  numbers  of  ex  votos  of  the  parts  of  generation  adorned  his  shrine,  which  was  much  frequented  by 
modern  Neapolitan  females  to  procure  fecundity,  precisely  as  it  had  been  by  the  females  of  antiquity. 

*  Vol,  HI.  p  151. 


86  BAMBINO   AT   ROME.      DEDICATING    CHURCHES,   &C.,   &C. 

The  ancients  had  a  form  of  wishing  happiness  to  others,  in  which  were  used  the  words  perpetuam 
felititatem.  Out  of  these  words  were  made  St.  Perpetua  and  St.  Felicita.  In  the  same  way,  from 
the  words  Rogare  et  Donare,  they  have  made  St.  Rogatien  and  St.  Donatien.  These  examples  of 
their  saints  exhibit  a  very  striking  proof  of  what  I  have  said  respecting  the  nature  of  the  Romish 
tradition — all  these  histories  are  traditions.  From  such  traditions  the  whole  fabric  was  raised.  It 
could  not  be  expected  to  be  otherwise  than  as  we  find  it.  The  President  Fauchet,  in  his  Life  of 
Clovis, J  declares  ingenuously,  that  the  feasts  of  the  Romish  Church  were  copied  from  those  of 
the  Pagans :  and  Polydore  Virgil  regrets  that  the  feasts  are  more  Pagan  than  Christian.2 

The  festival  of  Martinmas  was  an  exact  imitation  of  the  feast  of  the  Romans  and  the  Greeks 
called  Pitegie  which  signifies  the  opening  of  the  wine  barrels,  which  at  this  time  is  practised  by 
the  Christians.  Thomas  Neagorus  3  calls  it  the  second  Bacchanalia. 

Herodotus4  says,  that  the  Egyptians  had  a  feast  in  which  the  ceremony  consisted  in  lighting 
numbers  of  candles  in  their  houses  during  the  whole  night,  called  the  feast  of  lights.  This  solem- 
nity, says  Baronius,  5  is  also  observed  by  us,  having  been  transferred  to  the  ascension. 

I  suppose  I  need  not  point  out  the  absolute  identity  of  the  ancient  Saturnalia  and  the  modern 
Carnival;  no  one  who  has  paid  the  least  attention  to  these  subjects  can  entertain  any  doubt 
respecting  them. 

As  the  Christians  have  a  particular  saint  to  whom  each  day  in  the  year  is  dedicated,  and  who 
has  his  particular  service  for  that  day ;  so  the  Persians  had  an  angel  for  each  day,  and  a  particular 
service  containing  a  compliment  to  the  angel  of  that  day.6 

12.  As  I  stated  before,  to  account  for  the  Heathen  superstitions  in  Christian  churches,  it  has 
been  said,  that  Gregory  the  Great  directed,  in  order  that  the  prejudices  of  the  vulgar  might  be  as  little 
offended  as  possible  by  the  change,  that  the  missionaries  to  Britain,  &c.,  should  leave  the  people 
in  the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  their  festivals,  provided  they  did  not  actually  adore  the  idols. 
How  can  this  be  reconciled  with  the  actual  adoration  of  the  waxen  infant,  with  the  most  magnifi- 
cent ceremonies,  in  the  churches  in  Rome,  on  the  first  hour  after  midnight,  on  the  morning  of  the 
25th  of  December  ?  This  I  have  myself  witnessed.  The  priests  pass  the  image  in  grand  proces- 
sion, each  stopping  before  it,  muttering  his  prayer,  going  down  on  his  knees,  and  kissing  the  toe 
of  the  figure.  What  was  this  but  the  ancient  worship  continued  ? 

When  the  Pagans  proceeded  to  build  a  temple  they  performed  on  the  ground  a  variety  of 
ceremonies.  The  head  priest  presided  at  the  ceremony,  and  laid  the  first  stone,  after  a  grand 
procession. 7  Pieces  of  gold  and  silver  were  laid  in  the  foundation,  and  the  Vestal  Virgins  or 
Nuns  sprinkled  the  place  with  holy  water.  All  this  is  closely  imitated  by  the  Romish  and  Protes- 
tant churches,  holy  water  by  the  latter  excepted. 

The  long  pilgrimages  of  the  Christians  are  exact  imitations  of  those  of  the  Pagans,  who  were 
accustomed  to  frequent  the  temples  of  Delphi,  Dodona,  Diana  at  Ephesus,  Ceres  in  Sicily, 8 
according  to  vows  made  by  them  on  emergences. 

It  is  the  custom  with  Christians  to  make  vows  on  various  occasions  to  build  churches.  So 
Romulus,  to  arrest  the  flight  of  his  soldiers,  vowed  a  temple  to  Jupiter  Stator.  In  like  manner 
Appius  vowed  a  temple  to  Bellona. 9 

Every  one  is  acquainted  with  the  votive  offerings  of  the  ancients  : 


1  P  124.  8  Lii>.  vi*  Cap.  viii.  &e.  3  De  Regno  Pont.  Lib.  iv.  4  Lib.  ii. 

*  In  the  year  58,  s.  28.  G  Hyde;  Dupuis,  Vol.  III.  p.  325, 4to. 

7  Cicero  and  Tacitus,  Lib,  iv.  on  rebuilding  the  capital,  8  Vide  Cic.  ActL  6,  in  Verreai* 

a  T.  Livy,  Lib.  x. 


BOOK  II,    CHAPTER   II.   SECTION   13.  87 

Me  tabul&  sacer 

Votiv&  paries  indicat  humida 

Suspendisse  potent! 

Vestimenta  maris  Deo.1 

Again, 

Nunc  Dea,  nunc  succurre  uaihi,  nam  posse  mederi 
Picta  docet  templis  multa  tabella  tuis.8 

This  is  exactly  imitated  in  the  Romish  churches  of  Italy.  Some  of  the  churches  in  Florence 
and  Rome  are  actually  covered  with  votive  offerings.  Sometimes  jewels  are  given,  sometimes 
pictures  of  the  mode  in  which  some  favourite  saint  has  effected  a  cure,  or  saved  the  devotee  from 
the  effect  of  an  accident  \  or  a  model  in  wax  of  some  limb  cured  is  hung  tip  5  and  some  very 
curious  limbs  may  occasionally  be  seen, 

Our  long  prayers  and  litanies  are  exact  imitations  of  those  of  the  Pagans,  and  are  directly  in 
defiance  of  the  command  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  When  ye  pray/'  says  he,  "  use  not  vain  repetitions, 
"  as  the  Heathen  do ;  for  they  think  that  they  shall  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking."  (Matt.  vi. 
7«)  How  directly  this  is  against  the  Romish  t(  Kyrie,  Eleeson ;  Christe,  Eleeson;  ora  pro  nobis; 
"Domine,  exaudi  nos  $"*  and  our  "Lord  have  mercy  upon  us/1  in  our  litany  and  repetition  of 
creeds,  &c, !  All  this  is  an  exact  imitation  of  the  prayers  to  Baal,  described  in  1  Kings  xviii.  26, 
Baal,  exaudi  nos9  which  they  cried  from  morning  to  noon.  Thus  the  Romish  devotees  count 
their  Paters  and  the  repetition  of  their  Credo,  and  Ave,  Maria,  &c.,  exactly  like  what  Tertullian 
says  of  the  Pagans — that  they  think  to  force  heaven  with  their  crowd  of  prayers,  Thus  again,  in 
the  Protestant  Litany,  the  repetition  of  the  prayer  to  the  Lamb  of  God  is  taken  from  the  service 
of  the  ancient  Carnutes  of  Gaul. 

13.  The  ancient  Roman  children  carried  around  their  necks  a  small  ornament  in  form  of  a  heart, 
called  Bulla.  This  was  imitated  by  the  early  Christians.  Upon  their  ancient  monuments,  in  the 
Vatican,  the  heart  is  very  common,  and  it  may  be  seen  in  numbers  of  old  pictures.  After  some 
time  it  was  succeeded  fay  the  Agnus  Dei,  which,  like  the  ancient  Bulla,  was  supposed  to  avert 
dangers  from  the  children  and  the  wearers  of  them.  Pope  Urban  V.  sent  one  to  the  Emperor  of 
the  Greeks  with  the  following  beautificl  verses : 

Balsaraus  et  munda  cera  cum  chrismatis  und& 
Confidant  agnum  quod  munus  do  tibi  magnum. 
Fulgura  desursum  depellit,  omne  malignum 
Peccatum  frangit,  ut  Christi  sanguis  et  angit. 
Prsegnam  serrate,  simul  et  partus  liberatur. 
Dona  defert  dignis,  virtutem  destruet  ignis. 
Portatus  munde*  de  fluctibus  eripit  undre. 

Cardinal  Baronius 3  says,  that  those  who  have  been  baptized  carry  pendant  from  their  neck  an 
Agnus  Dei,  in  imitation  of  a  devotion  of  the  Pagans,  who  hang  to  the  neck  of  their  children  little 
bottles  in  form  of  a  heart,  which  serve  as  preservatives  against  charms  and  enchantments.  And 
as  these  bottles  were  made  in  form  of  a  heart  to  shew  that  man  could  not  exist  without  a  heart  $ 
so  the  Christians  carry  the  image  of  the  Iamb,  to  learn  from  its  example  to  be  humble  of  heart. 

This  is  the  heart  which  the  reader  has  seen  in  the  figures  of  India,  of  Greece,  and  of  Rome, 
noticed  in  Vol.  I.  pp.  146,  572.  It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  the  origins  of  both  the  heart  and 
the  agnus  were  equally  unknown  to  the  Cardinal.  But  he  was  probably  right  in  supposing  them 
talismans. 


•  Horace,  Lib.  i.  Ode  v.  *  Tibull.  Lib.  i,  Eleg.  iii, 

3  Ann.  Eccles.  en  1'ann.  58, 


88  BULJLA.      AGNUS  DEI.      ANGELS.      DJEMONS. 

For  the  manufacture  or  blessing  of  these  Agni  Dei  a  long  ceremony  is  usually  performed  by  the 
Pope  on  the  day  called  the  Sunday  in  A  Ibis. l 

As  the  supreme  God  Braraha  was  surrounded  with  good  and  bad  angels,  or,  as  they  are  called 
in  the  Brahminical  religion,  Dewtahs,  with  some  of  the  latter  of  whom  Cristna  the  saviour  made  a 
war ;  so  with  the  Persians  the  Supreme  God  had  his  good  and  bad  angels,  the  latter  constantly 
aided  by  the  destroyer  Arhiman,  at  war  with  the  Supreme  Being.  Here  we  see  the  prototype  of 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  devil  and  his  fallen  angels  at  war  with  God,  and  working  in  every 
way  in  their  power  for  the  destruction  of  man.  The  book  of  Enoch  gives  the  fullest  account  of 
the  doctrine  of  angels.  As  the  genuineness  of  the  book  is  not  doubted,  that  is  to  say,  as  it  is  not 
doubted  to  be  the  real  book  referred  to  by  St.  Jude,  and  as  he  was  inspired,  I  do  not  clearly  see 
how  his  authority  can  be  denied  by  Christians.  In  the  Hindoo  work  called  the  Mahabarat,  a  very 
long  account  is  given  of  the  wars  of  Cristna  with  the  rebellious  Dewtahs  and  Assoors.  The 
Hindoo  and  Persian  doctrine  of  angels  and  devils,  is  alluded  to  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude,  to  which 
I  have  just  referred. 

Stanley  also  shews  that  the  existence  of  angels,  and  of  good  and  bad  daemons,  was  ad- 
mitted. He  shews  that  daemons  were  held  to  be  of  many  kinds,  and  to  be  corporeal :  "  Those 
"  daemons  are  of  many  kinds,  and  various  sorts,  both  as  to  their  figures  and  bodies,  insomuch  that 
"  the  air  is  full  of  them,  as  well  that  which  is  above  us,  as  that  which  is  round  about  us.  The 
"  earth  likewise  is  full,  and  the  seaa  and  the  most  retired  cavities  and  depths." 

Mr.  Colebrook  says,  that  the  Vedas  throughout  teem  with  prayers  and  incantations  to  avert 
and  repel  the  molestation  of  aerial  spirits,  mischievous  imps,  who  crowd  about  the  sacrifice  and 
impede  the  religious  rite.2  This  was  precisely  the  doctrine  and  belief  of  the  early  fathers  of  the 
Romish  Church. 

In  the  first  Liturgy  of  Edward  VI.  Anno  2,  the  following  form  of  Exorcism  was  ordered  in 
baptism  :  "  Then  let  the  priest,  looking  upon  the  children,  say,  I  command  thee,  unclean  spirit,  in 
66  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  thou  come  out  and  depart  from 
"  these  infants,  whom  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  vouchsafed  to  call  to  his  holy  baptism^  to  be 
"  made  members  of  his  body  and  of  his  holy  congregation.  Therefore  remember^  thou  cursed 
"  spirit,  remember  thy  sentence,  remember  thy  judgment,  remember  the  day  to  be  at  hand 
"  wherein  thou  shalt  burn  in  fire  everlasting,  prepared  for  thee  and  thy  angels.  And  presume  not 
"  hereafter  to  exercise  any  tyranny  towards  these  infants,  whom  Christ  hath  bought  with  his 
"  precious  blood,  and  by  this  holy  baptism  called  to  be  of  his  flock."  This,  on  the  remonstrance 
of  Bucer,  was  afterwards  omitted. 3 

The  sign  of  the  cross,  though  made  by  a  Jew,  Infidel,  or  Pagan,  was  offeree  to  drive  the  devil 
from  one. 4  Pope  Alexander  ordained  that  holy  water  should  be  tempered  with  salt,  and  used  ad 
fugandos  dsemones,  to  drive  away  devils.  (Platina  in  vit&  Alexand.) 5 

But  the  Persians  not  only  had  angels  and  wars  of  angels  agaiost  God,  similar  to  those  of  the 
Christians,  but  they  actually  had  the  same  names^  (as  I  have  somewhere  read,  though  at  this 
moment  I  cannot  recollect  where,)  such  as  Gabriel,  Michael,  Uiiel,  &c. 


1  Vide  Cerem  Rom.  i.  Sect.  7;  also  Hospiniaa  Festa  Christianorum,  p.  76,  A.  D.  1612. 
s  Astion   Vol.  I.  p  5/8 

3  The  seventy-second  canon  of  the  Church  of  England  thus  expi esses  itself  on  Exorcism:  " No  minister  shall, 
*'  without  the  licence  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  first  obtained  and  had  under  his  hand  and  seal,  attempt,  upon  any 
*'  pretence  whatsoever,  either  of  obsession  or  possession,  by  fabting  and  prayer,  to  cast  out  any  devil  or  devils,  under 
**  pain  of  the  imputation  of  imposture  or  cozenage  and  deposition  from  the  ministry." — Beverley's  Book,  xxv. 

*  Bellarmin  de  Imaginibus  Sanet,  Cap.  xxx  ;  Hog's  Hist,  of  Cornwall,  p.  468.  *  Hog's  Hist,  ut  supra. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  II.     SECTION   14.  89 

The  followers  of  Mithra  always  turned  towards  the  East,  when  they  worshiped ;  the  banie  is 
done  by  the  Brahmins  l  of  the  East  and  the  Christians  of  the  West.  In  the  ceremony  of  baptism, 
the  catechumen2  was  placed  with  his  face  to  the  West,  the  symbolical  representation  of  the 
prince  of  darkness,  in  opposition  to  the  East,  and  made  to  spit  towards  it  at  the  evil  one,  and 
renounce  his  works. 3 

Tertullian 4  says,  that  Christians  were  taken  for  worshipers  of  the  Sun  because  they  prayed 
towards  the  East  after  the  manner  of  those  who  adored  the  Sun.  He  says  the  same  in  his  book, 
Ad  Nat.  Lib.  i.  Cap.  xiii.  5  Mr.  Reeves  says,  the  Christians  worshiped  towards  the  East  because 
the  altar  was  there  :  but  why  was  the  altar  there,  but  because  the  East  was  the  symbol  of  the 
good  Deity — in  opposition  to  the  West,  the  symbol  of  the  Evil  One  ? 

To  this  day,  in  most  English  Churches,  at  particular  parts  of  the  service,  for  instance  in  the 
repetition  of  the  Creed,  those  persons  who  do  not  happen  to  have  their  faces  turned  towards  the 
altar  or  the  East,  always  turn  to  it ;  of  the  reason  of  this  they  are  probably  ignorant.6  The 
Essenes  always  turned  to  the  East  to  pray.  Prideaux,  in  his  Life  of  Mahomet,  says,  the  Jews 
always  turned  to  Jerusalem  to  prayr  wherever  they  might  be.8 

f(  Quod  attinet  supradictos  Christianos  Armenos  ad  Solem  se  flectentes,  de  ejusmodi  Christianis 
"  etiam  suo  tempore  conquerebatur  Leo  Papa  (Serin.  VII.  de  Nativitate  Christi)  Prisdllianistas 
"  arguens  de  cultu  Solis.  Ut  sol  exurgens — a  quibusdam  inslpientil/us  de  lods  eminentiorihus 
"  adoretur.  Quod  nonnulli  etiam  Christiani  aded  se  religiosb  facere  putant,  ut  prmsquam  ad  D* 
"  Petri  Basilicam  perveniant,  superatis  gradibus,~-converso  corpore,  ad  nascentem  se  Solem  reflec- 
'*  tant,  et  curvatis  cervicibus,  in  honorem  se  splendentis  orbis  inclinent," 9  This  proves  the 
mixed  worship  of  Jesus  and  the  Sun,  which  Leo  was  striving  to  abolish.  Hyde,  in  the  preceding 
page,  shews,  that  the  Armenian  Christians  were  also  in  the  habit,  while  turning  to  the  Sun  to  offer 
their  prayers,  of  constantly  crossing  themselves. 

14.  It  appears  that  the  Christians  were  accused  by  the  Heathens  of  being  worshipers  of  the 
Sun.  Tertullian,  in  reply  to  an  accusation  of  this  kind,  tells  us,  that  the  Sunday  was  celebrated 
by  them  in  opposition  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  and  not  because  it  was  consecrated  to  the  Sun. 
This  was  evidently  a  contrivance  to  evade  the  charge.  The  reason  assigned  by  Justin  Martyr  10 
that  Sunday  was  celebrated  because  it  was  the  day  of  Christ's  resurrection,  would  not  have  been 
deemed  satisfactory  5  for  the  Heathens  would  have  replied,  "  Certainly  it  was  on  the  Sunday,  the 
"  day  of  the  Dominus  Sol,  the  Lord's-day,  as  you  call  it,  because  on  that  day  the  resurrection  of 
"  the  Dominus  Sol— ^the  Saviour — was  always  celebrated  in  the  Mithraitic  caves." 

This  contrariety  seems  to  shew  that  neither  Justin  nor  Tertullian  knew  any  thing  about  the 
matter,  any  more  than  they  did  about  the  statue  of  Sangus,  which  they  took  for  a  statue  of  Simon 
Magus. 

In  Sect.  9,  the  day  of  meeting  of  the  Essenes  is  stated  to  be  Saturday ;  but  this  feast  lasted  till 
sun-rising.  In  Sect.  17  it  is  also  stated,  that  they  worshiped  toward  the  Sun  at  its  rising.  It 
seems  the  night  was  spent  in  singing  hymns,  &c.  As  soon  as  dawn  appeared,  they  retired  to  their 


1  Maur.  Ind.  Ant.  Vol.  II.  p.  9?.  *  Tertull.  p.  221.  3  Justin,  Reeres's  Trans,  note,  Sect*  79,  p.  96. 

4  Apol.  Cap.  xvi.  5  Clemens  Alex.  (Strom.  7>)  and  Origen  say  the  same. 

6  See  Parkhurst,  pp.  634,  736.  7  P.  93. 

8  He  refers  to  Daniel  vi.  10;  Buxtorfii  SyrJfc^a  Judaica,  Cap.  x.$  Maimonides  in  Halacboth  Tephillah,  Cap.  i 
Sect.  3. 

»  Hyde,  de  Rel.  Cap.  iv.  p.  107,  ed.  1760.  10  Apol.  I.  Sect.  89. 

VOL.   II.  N 


90  SUNDAY,  DIES   SOLIS.      VARIOUS    CUSTOMS. 

cells,  after  saluting  one  another.  From  the  account  in  Pliny  it  appears  the  Christians  of  Bithynia 
met  before  it  was  light,  and  sung  hymns  to  Christ  as  to  a  God.  But  the  words  imply,  that  they 
met  very  early  in  the  morning.  Surely  the  circumstances  of  the  two  classes  of  people  meeting 
before  day-light  is  a  very  remarkable  coincidence.  It  appears  that  after  their  service  they  saluted 
one  another.  This  custom  is  continued  in  our  churches  to  this  day.  Every  person  salutes  his 
nearest  neighbours,  though  it  would  probably  be  difficult  to  get  a  reason  from  any  one  for  doing  it. 
It  is  the  remnant  of  the  old  custom  \  so  is  bowing  at  the  name  of  Christ, l  and  turning  the  face  to 
the  East  at  particular  parts  of  the  service. 

Justin  no  where  calls  the  Sunday  the  Sabbath-day,  but  ^epa  re  fyis,  the  day  of  the  sun. 
And  it  is  very  curious  that  Constantine,  after  he  pretended  to  be  converted  to  Christianity, 
ordered  the  day  Domini  invicti  Solis,  to  be  set  apart  for  the  celebration  of  peculiar  mysteries  to 
the  honour  of  the  God  Sol. 

A  very  long  and  terrible  schism  took  place  in  the  Christian  Church  upon  the  important  question, 
as  I  have  remarked  in  page  59,  whether  Easter,  the  day  of  the  resurrection,  was  to  be  celebrated 
on  the  14th  day  of  the  first  month  after  the  Jewish  custom,  or  on  the  Lord's- day  afterward  ;  and 
it  was  at  last  decided  in  favour  of  the  Lord's-day.  But  terrible  wais  took  place  before  this  most 
important  affair  could  be  settled. 

Besides  the  above  almost  an  infinite  number  of  small  coincidences  might  be  pointed  out,  each 
trifling  and  of  little  or  no  moment  when  taken  by  itself,  but  which,  in  the  aggregate,  is  of  very 
considerable  importance.  The  multitude  of  the  inferior  Gods  of  the  Heathens  are  well  matched 
by  the  Saints  of  the  Christians :  they  were  thought  to  be  endowed  with  the  same  limited  powers, 
and  to  act  as  mediators  between  man  and  the  Supreme  Deity,  and  were  equally  honoured  with  the 
epithet  divus.  The  Gods  of  the  Heathens  were  fond  of  high  places,  and  equally  so  are  the  Saints 
of  the  Christians  ;  to  some  one  of  whom  almost  every  mount  and  every  fountain  was  dedicated. 
Each  town  had  its  patron  and  protecting  tutelar  God,  it  has  now  its  patron  and  protecting  Saint — 
to  whom,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  in  all  moments  of  distress,  of  plague,  pestilence,  or  famine,  the 
inhabitants  address  their  prayers.  Scarcely  a  church  exists  in  Italy  in  which  the  numerous  votive 
tablets  do  not  bear  witness  to  the  active  and  miraculous  interference  of  the  tutelar  saint. 

The  Vialcs  or  Compitales  fixed  at  the  corners  of  the  streets,  to  whom  the  games  called  Com- 
pitalicii  were  celebrated,  yet  remain  under  the  name  of  a  Madonna  or  some  favourite  saint — as 
the  Madonna  Dolerosa,  or  Divus  Petronius,  &c.  $  generally  ornamented  like  the  ancient  compi- 
tales  with  flowers.  In  Sicily  the  Madonna  Vialis  is  seen  with  a  bunch  of  ears  of  corn  in  her 
hand.  By  a  decree  of  Augustus  the  Compitales  were  ordered  to  be  honoured  with  garlands  of 
flowers,  These  are  part  of  the  Lares  or  household  Gods,  and  are  to  be  met  with  in  every  house 
in  Italy :  and  to  them,  as  was  customary  in  ancient  times,  the  Calabrian  shepherds  come  into 
Rome  a  few  weeks  before  the  winter  solstice  to  play  on  the  pipes. 

Ante  Detim  matrem  cornu  tibicen  adunco 
Cum  canit,  e?igiue  quis  stipis  aera  neget>4 


i  The  Chiistians  of  Bitliynia  met,  it  appears,  before  it  was  light,  because  they  were  afraid  to  hold  their  religious 
assemblies  in  open  day,  lest  theii  enemies  should  asbault  or  seize  them.  Their  salutation  at  parting  was  piobably  that 
\vhich  Paul  (Rom  xvi.  16)  recommended— their  mutual  danger  increasing  their  mutual  attachment,  Salutations  were 
frequently,  as  they  still  are,  expi eased  by  wilting  or  orally.  Such  are  those  to  our  neighbours  and  friencjs— expressive 
of  courtesy  or  of  regaid.  "  Bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus"  appeals  to  have  been  introduced  from  a  belief  in  his  Deity, 
and  from  its  being  supposed  to  be  required,  by  what  St.  Paul  says  to  the  Philippians,  (ii,  10,)  where  sv  would,  perhaps, 
be  more  correctly  rendered  by  in  than  by  at*— Editor. 

*  Ovid's  Epist.  i.  /.  11. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  II.    SECTION  14.  91 

When  to  the  mighty  Mother  pipes  the  swain, 
Grudge  not  a  trifle  for  his  pious  strain. 

No  person  can  have  spent  a  winter  in  Rome  withoat  having  been  often  awakened  before  day- 
break, by  the  beautiful  and  plaintive  airs  of  these  simple  shepherds  on  their  bagpipes. * 

A  remnant  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  of  Ceres  is  &till  retained  in  the  festival  of  St,  Agatha  in 
Sicily-  The  same  horse-races  are  continued,  the  same  processions  made  by  friendly  societies, 
(the  sodalitates  of  antiquity,)  in  which  the  image  of  the  saint,  on  a  triumphal  car,  and  the  sacred 
relics,  are  borne  about  with  wax  lights  of  an  enormous  size,  precisely  as  was  usual  in  the  pro- 
cessions in  honour  of  Ceres.  The  procession  takes  place  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  festival  of  the 
saint,  as  it  did  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  festival  of  Ceres.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  festival  in 
each  case,  the  sacred  relics,  which  were  only  shewn  on  those  occasions,  were  offered  to  the  people 
to  kiss  $  and,  finally,  as  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  were  celebrated  twice  a  year,  in  spring  and  in 
autumn,  so  are  the  festivals  of  St.  Agatha. 

The  numerous  names  of  the  Gods  of  the  Heathens  are  closely  copied  by  the  Christians,  The 
ancient  Romans  had  the  Jupiter  Tonans,  Jupiter  Sponsor,  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  &c.,  &c.  j  then 
Venus  Calva,  Venus  Verticordia,  Venus  Capitolina,  &c.,  &c.  The  modern  Romans  have  their 
St.  Pietro  in  Vaticano  \  St.  Pietro  in  Vinculo  j  St.  Pietro  in  Carcere,  &c.,  &c.  'y  Sa.  Maria  degli 
Angeli  >  Sa.  Maria  della  Consolazione  ;  Sa.  Maria  dell*  Anima,  &c.,  &c.,  to  the  number,  as  stated 
under  her  image  at  Loretto,  of  upwards  of  forty  names  :  and  in  the  same  manner  as  the  temples 
were  sometimes  dedicated  to  several  ancient  Divi  or  Gods,  so  the  churches  are  sometimes  dedicated 
to  several  modern  Divi  or  Saints.  The  temple  of  Vesta  is  now  the  church  of  the  Madonna  of  the 
Sun9  fire  being  the  prevailing  idea  in.  both  appellations.  That  of  Romulus  and  Remus  is  now  the 
church  of  Cosmo  and  Damien — twin  brothers.  The  temple  of  Bacchus  or  the  St.  Liber,  on  the 
promontory  of  Ancona,  is  now  the  church  of  the  Holy  Liberius  descended  ex  stirpe  regum  Arme- 
niorum.  The  church  of  St.  Denis,  near  Pans,  has  succeeded  to  the  temple  of  Dionusos.  The 
Romans  had  a  tradition,  that  Anna  Perenna,  the  sister  of  Dido,  was  cast  ashore  near  the  Numi- 
cus,  in  which  she  ultimately  drowned  herself,  and  of  which  she  became  the  protecting  nymph. 
She  is  succeeded  by  Sa.  Anna,  the  sister  of  the  Virgin,  to  whose  name  the  epithet  Petronilla  is 
added,  for  some  unknown  reason. 

The  Heathens  constantly  erected  temples  as  votive  offerings  to  their  Gods,  as  was  the  case  with 
the  temple  of  Jupiter  Tonans,  erected  by  Augustus,  out  of  gratitude  for  his  escape  from  lightning 
which  killed  several  of  his  attendants ;  and  so  are  Christian  churches  :  for  instance,  the  church 
Della  Salute,  erected  in  memory  of  the  deliverance  of  Venice  from  plague  in  1586.  The  ancient 
temples  and  modern  churches  are  equally  built  to  record  certain  events  or  to  receive  certain 
sacred  deposits.  Their  walls,  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times,  were  ornamented  with  pictures.  a 
The  images  in  each  case  were  equally  loaded  with  finery,  jewels,  paint,  &c.,  and  kept  in  sacred 
recesses  with  curtains  before  them*  The  temples  in  ancient,  like  the  churches  in  modern  times, 
were  open  from  morning  to  night,  with  a  small  intermission  at  noon.  The  ancient  sacrifice  is 
succeeded  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass :  the  attending  boys  in  white  tunics  are  continued  as  in, 
ancient  times.  The  Mozzetta  and  Sottana  of  the  priests,  from  the  latter  of  which  our  cassock  is 
taken,  are  both  dresses  of  the  priests  of  antiquity.  The  subject  of  the  ancient  sacrifice  was  called 
Hostia;  the  modern  mass,  Ostia, 

The  custom  of  using  the  aspersorio  to  sprinkle  the  people  with  holy  water  before  the  mass 
begins,  the  chaunting  of  the  service,  the  ringing  of  little  bells  during  the  ceremony,  are  all  Pagan 


The  real  Scotch  bagpipe.  *  See  Pausanias  passim. 

N2 


92  SUNDAY,  DIES  SOWS.     VARIOUS   CUSTOMS. 

usages.  The  ceremony  of  putting  ashes  on  the  head,  on  Ash-Wednesday,  is  a  continuation  of 
the  festival  of  the  Fordicidia,  which  was  celebrated  at  Rome  on  the  15th  and  21st  of  April.  The 
Catholic  modern  processions  are  exact  imitations  of  those  of  the  ancients,  which  were  Attended 
with  music,  tapers,  successions  of  images,  companies  of  attendants,  streets  hung  with  tapestry, 
&c.,  &c.  The  mendicant  monks  are  merely  a  continuation  of  the  priests  of  Isis,  who,  like  them, 
lived  by  begging,  and  were  great  dealers  in  relics  of  the  Gods,  and  who  often  pretended  to  possess 
the  bodies  of  the  Gods.  The  priests  of  Isis  had  their  dresses  made  precisely  of  the  same  fashion 
as  those  of  the  Franciscan  Monks :  the  sandals  are  the  same.  The  tonsure  of  the  prie&ts  of  Isis 
and  Serapis,  or  the  practice  of  shaving  the  crown  of  the  head,  so  as  to  leave  only  a  ring  of  hair, 
is  exactly  continued  by  the  modern  monks.  In  short,  the  Franciscan  Monks  are  evidently  the 
priests  of  Isis. 

The  ceremony  at  Rome  on  Good-Friday,  called  the  "Agonie,"  is  nothing  more  than  the  Pagan 
ceremony  alluded  to  in  Scripture,  *  called  the  women  weeping  for  Tammuz.  The  charms  or 
amulets  of  the  ancients  are  still  strictly  continued  in  Italy  by  all  classes  of  people.  The  funerals 
are  also  in  many  respects  the  same  as  those  of  the  ancients.  The  Protestant  practice  in  England 
of  throwing  three  handfuls  of  earth  on  the  coffin,  and  saying,  earth  to  earthy  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to 
dusty  is  a  copy  from  the  ancient  Egyptians,  2  and  the  continuation  of  a  Pagan  ceremony,  to  satisfy 
the  Gods  below,  in  which  the  priest  threw  earth  three  times  upon  the  body— "  injecto  ter  pulvere 
curras."3  The  ancient  offerings  made  at  the  sepulchres  of  friends  are  now  succeeded  by  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass,  for  which  payment  is  made  to  the  priest.  It  is  a  sacrifice  of  prayer  and 
incense,  and  is  more  or  less  expensive  in  proportion  to  the  wealth  or  poverty  of  the  deceased.  In 
short,  the  ceremonies  of  torches,  holy  water,  prayers  for  the  dead,  and  the  other  forms  used  at 
funerals  in  many  Christian  countries,  are  nothing  but  imitations  of  similar  customs  observed  by 
the  Pagans ;  so  that,  in  fact,  there  is  not  a  single  ordinance  of  the  Christians  which  they  can 
properly  call  their  own ;  all  is  a  servile  imitation  of  the  much- abused  and  calumniated,  though, 
like  Christians,  in  many  respects  blameable,  Pagans. 

The  Jews  fasted,  and  flogged  themselves  in  the  temple  ;  the  votaries  of  Isis  did  the  same.  In 
Trans,  Acad.  Ins.  An.  1746,  Tome  IV.,  it  is  shewn,  that  almost  all  ancient  nations  had  the  practice 
of  fasting. 

The  Persians  used  incense  after  the  manner  of  the  Jews,  copied  by  the  Christians,4 

For  nearly  the  whole  of  this  section  the  Author  is  indebted  to  a  small  treatise  on  the  ancient 
Customs  of  Italy  and  Sicily,  by  Mr.  Blunt,  of  St.  John's,  Cambridge.  Much  more  of  the  same 
kind  might  be  discovered  \  but  why  multiply  .examples,  when  the  case  is  proved  usque  ad 
nauseam  ? 

In  the  front  of  most  of  the  churches  in  Rome  are  placed  very  large  obelisks  or  single  pillars. 
Man  is  no  doubt  an  imitative  animal,  and  these  may  have  been  raised,  by  the  modern  Romans, 
merely  out  of  imitation  of  their  ancestors ;  but  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  that  they  were  raised  for 
the  same  reason  that  all  the  Pagan  ceremonies  which  I  have  described  were  adopted — their  Pon- 
tifex  Maxinms,  &c.  They  were  a  part  of  the  esoteric  ancient  religion,  and,  a&  such,  were  adopted. 
Two  of  these  obelisks,  covered  with  hieroglyphics,  are  ascertained  not  to  have  come  from  Egypt ; 
but  the  hieroglyphics  are  said  to  be  forgeries.  Then  why  were  they  raised  \  and  why  were  the 
hieroglyphics  placed  upon  them  ?  Did  the  modern  Romans  understand  the  hieroglyphics  ?  I  do 
not  believe  that  they  would  be  at  the  expense  of  engraving  them,  merely  to  pass  off  the  obelisks 
as  Egyptian,  as,  at  the  time  that  they  were  done,  every  one  must  have  known  of  the  forgery. 


»  Ezek.  viii.  14,       »  Spineto,  p.  148.      3  Horace,  Lib.  i.  Ode  xxviii.  /.  36,      4  Hyde,  de  Bel,  Vet.  Pers.  Cap.  iii,  p.  99. 


BOOK    II.    CHAPTER    II.   SECTION    14.  93 

Then  what  are  we  to  make  of  them  ?  I  can  scarcely  believe  that  the  hieroglyphics  are  known  in 
the  conclave  \  but  it  is  next  to  imposible  to  ascertain  what,  is  known  there.  It  is  very  certain, 
that  if  the  knowledge  of  these  hieroglyphics  be  a  religious  srcret,  a  masonic  secret,  no  attempt  to 
discover  it  would  be  successful.  For,  if  a  Pope  or  Cardinal  \\ere  to  violate  his  oath,  (without  any 
object  of  self-gratification  as  it  would  be,)  he  would  be  rendered  infamous;  and  the  strong-nerved 
arms  of  millions  of  monks  would  be  ready  with  their  daggers  instantly  to  give  him  his  reward. 
If  any  man  were  to  violate  such  a  becret,  I  have  no  doubt  that  hundreds  of  priests  in  Rome  would 
be  ready  to  teach -their  fanatical  devotees,  that  it  would  be  the  highest  of  all  meritorious  acts  to 
assassinate  or  poison  such  a  man.  These  obelisks  were  Lingas,  adopted  for  the  same  reason  that 
all  the  other  rites  and  ceremonies  of  Heathenism  were  adopted. 

In  reply  to  what  I  have  said  a  certain  class  of  persons  will  exclaim,  Oh,  but  these  are  nothing 
but  the  abuses  of  the  Papists  !  But  I  think  my  reader  will  soon  be  convinced,  if  he  be  not 
convinced  already,  that  between  the  Protestants  and  Papists  there  is  very  little  difference.  The 
priests  of  the  latter  have  been  obliged  to  give  up  certain  absurdities  which  they  found  their  flocks 
would  no  longer  tolerate,  keeping  some  as  great  as  any  they  surrendered,  and  indeed  keeping  all 
as  long  as  they  possibly  could.  The  Athanasian  Creed  and  part  of  the  service  for  the  ordination 
of  priests  is  as  bad  as  any  thing  which  the  Papists  profess.  The  truth  is,  that  the  Romish  religion 
is  nothing  but  a  renovation  of  the  old  Pagan  or  Gentile  religion,  and  the  Protestant  is  only  a  part 
of  the  latter.  But  neither  of  them  can  properly  be  called  the  religion  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as 
I  shall  shew  in  a  future  book. 

The  fact  of  the  identity  of  the  Christian  and  Gentile  rites  and  ceremonies  has  been  so  evident 
that  the  Romish  writers  have  not  been  able  to  deny  it,  but  have  been  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
explanations.  Baronius1  says,  "  It  is  permitted  to  the  Church  to  use,  for  the  purposes  of  piety, 
"  the  ceremonies  which  the  Pagans  used  for  the  purposes  of  impiety  in  a  superstitious  religion, 
"  after  having  first  expiated  them  by  consecration — to  the  end,  that  the  devil  might  receive  a 
"  greater  affront  from  employing,  in  honour  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  which  his  enemy  had  destined  for 
"  his  own  service/5  I  suppose  it  is  for  this  reason  that  the  Romish  Church  has  not  any  dogma, 
rite,  or  ceremony,  which  is  not  Pagan  I  !  ! 

Polydore  Virgil,  who  was  much  praised  by  Baronius  and  other  learned  men  of  the  Roman 
Church,  who  call  him  a  celebrated  historian,  and  say  that  he  was  well  instructed,  and  drew  his 
information  both  from  the  ancients  and  moderns,  says,2  that  the  church  has  taken  many  customs 
from  the  religion  of  the  Romans  and  other  Pagans,  but  that  it  has  rendered  them  better,  and 
employed  them  to  a  better  purpose, 

Fauchet,  in  his  antiquities  of  Gaul,3  avows,  "  That  the  bishops  of  that  kingdom  employed  every 
"  means  to  gain  men  to  Christ,  availing  themselves  of  their  ceremonies,  as  well  as  of  the  stones  of 
"  their  temples  to  build  their  churches/* 

Eusebius,  in  the  Life  of  Constantine,  admits  that  he,  for  the  sake  of  making  the  Christian 
religion  more  plausible  to  the  Gentiles,  transferred  to  it  the  exterior  ornaments  which  they  em- 
ployed in  their  religion.  Pope  Gregory  L,  surnarned  the  Great,  who,  Platinus  says,4  was  the 
inventor  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  service,  followed  this  method,  as  every  one  fcan  see,  by  the  in- 
struction which  he  gave  to  a  priest  called  Augustin,  whom  he  sent  into  Britain  to  convert  the 
English.  "It  is  not  necessary,"  said  he,  "to  destroy  the  temples5  of  the  idols,  but  only  the 
"  idols,  and  to  substitute  the  holy  water,  to  build  altars,  and  to  deposit  relics.  If  their  temples 


1  An.  36  of  the  Annals.  *  Baron.  Vol.  IX.  an.  ?40,  Sect.  15;  Pol,  Virg,  Lib.  v.  Cap,  i. 

3  Liv.  ii,  Ch.  xix.  4  In  Vit&  Greg.  I.  *  Greg,  in  Regist.  Lib,  ix,  Epist,  71. 


94  SUNDAY,   DIBS   SOUS.      VARIOUS  CUSTOMS. 

"  have  been  well  built,  it  is  proper  to  divert  them  from  the  service  of  daemons  to  the  service  of  the 
"  true  God,  in  order  that  the  Pagans  may  be  more  easily  induced  to  come  to  worship  at  the  places 
"  where  they  have  been  accustomed."  He  added,  "  That  in  the  place  of  sacrificing  beasts,  they 
"  should  hare  festivals  to  the  saints  or  to  the  founders  of  the  churches,  and  thus  celebrate  religious 
"banquets;  that  thus  having  the  use  of  some  exterior  observances  they  should  be  more  easily 
"  drawn  to  the  interior  doctrines." 

But  how  completely  is  this  in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  Paul,  that  evil  should  not  be  done 
that  good  might  ensue  j  (Rom.  iii,  8;)  to  his  advice  to  the  Corinthian  converts  to  flee  from  ido- 
latry ;  (1  Cor.  x.  14;)  and  to  that  of  John,  "  Little  children  keep  yourselves  from  idols"  !  (I  Ep.  v. 
21.)  And  how  much  at  variance  is  it  to  the  praise  given  by  St,  Ambrose  to  Theodosius,  when 
calling  him  another  Josias  for  destroying  the  temples  of  the  infidels  ! l  Kow  completely  different 
is  all  this  from  the  known  practice  of  the  first  Christians,  who  would  rather  submit  to  be  torn  to 
pieces  by  wild  beasts,  than  place  even  a  faprig  of  laurel  over  their  doors  on  a  Pagan  festival ! 
Besides,  how  absurd  is  it  to  suppose  that  the  feingle  corrupt  order  of  a  Gregory  should  be  able  to 
engraft  into  the  Christian  religion  not  only  the  festivals  but  the  doctrines  and  the  sacraments,  and 
the  most  obscure  and  abstruse  metaphysical  doctrines  of  the  Pagan  religion  !  The  cause  is  not 
commensurate  with  the  effect,  and  some  other  cause  must  be  sought. 

It  is  said  that  those  superstitious  practices  were  not  adopted  in  the  earlier  times  of  the  church, 
but  were  introduced  afterward  in  the  middle  and  dark  ages.  In  order  to  form  a  correct  judgment 
upon  this  point,  it  may  be  useful  to  ascertain  at  what  time  the  Pagan  superstitions  actually  ceased. 
It  is  well  known  that  they  had  been  laid  aside  in  all  the  great  cities  as  early  as  the  time  of  Theo- 
dosius,  and  that  they  were  banished  to  villages  in  remote  situations,  whence  their  followers  were 
designated  by  the  opprobrious  name  of  Pagani.  Now  as  it  is  improbable,  and  actually  contrary 
to  common  sense  to  suppose,  that  a  considerable  interval  should  have  intervened  after  the  cessa- 
tion of  those  superstitions  of  the  Pagans,  and  their  renewed  adoption  by  the  Christians,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  vulgar  prejudices  of  the  former,  it  follows  that  they  could  not  be  the  produce  of 
the  dark  ages  of  monkish  superstition  and  ignorance.  To  take  an  example :  Romulus  was 
thought  by  the  Heathens  to  be  peculiarly  favourable  to  young  children,  and  it  was  the  custom  at 
Rome  to  present  them  at  his  shrine,  to  be  cured  of  their  complaints  ;  afterward  when  the  temple 
was  converted  into  a  church,  it  was  dedicated  to  Saint  Theodorus,  who  had  been,  like  Romulus, 
exposed  in  his  infancy,  and  therefore  was  supposed  to  be  particularly  fond  of  young  children,  who 
yet  continue  to  be  brought  to  his  shrine  to  be  cured  of  their  diseases.  When  they  recover,  a 
miracle  is  alleged  to  have  been  performed  \  when  they  do  not,  the  reason  assigned  may  probably 
be,  that  the  saint  is  not  propitious  to  the  parents.  This  exhibition  is  not  in  a  remote  place,  but 
in  the  centre  of  the  Papal  city. 

Now,  as  Theodosius  destroyed  or  converted  into  churches  such  of  the  Heathen  temples  as 
Constantine  had  spared,  this  Christian  superstition  can  hardly  be  dated  later  than  the  time  of  the 
former,  and  therefore  it  cannot  well  be  attributed  to  the  middle  ages.  Besides,  if  the  almost  soli- 
tary act  of  Gregory  may  be  pleaded  for  a  few  of  the  local  customs  of  Britain,  it  is  perfectly  incom- 
petent to  account  for  all  the  numerous  Pagan  doctrines  and  rites  which  have  been  pointed  out  in 
this  work.  It  is  evident  that  the  story  of  Gregory,  though  perhaps  very  true,  is  a  mere  subterfuge, 
and  is  by  no  means  adequate  to  account  for  the  well-known  facts,  of  the  continuation  of  the  Pagan 
rites  and  superstitions. 


Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles.  Lib  v  Cap.  x,\. 


(    95    ) 


CHAPTER  III. 

BETHLEHEM,  BIRTH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. — BIRTH,  DEATH,  AND  RESURRECTION  OF  ALL  THE  GODS, — PASSOVER. 
— LAMB  OF  GOD. — GENTILE  CRUCIFIXION. — JESUS  CHRIST  WAS  NOT  CRUCIFIED. — JEWISH  INCARNATION. 
— PYTHAGORAS. — OBSERVATIONS. 

L  I  SHALL  finish  this  branch  of  my  subject  by  shewing,  that  the  birth,  death,  and  resurrection  of 
the  body  of  the  incarnate  God,  was  common  in  almost  every  temple  of  Paganism,  and  that  he 
was  not  only  put  to  death,  but  also  that  he  suffered  on  the  cross.,  and  rose  again  from  the  dead. 

It  is  impossible  to  move  a  step  in  the  examination  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  this  religion 
without  meeting  with  circumstances  of  greater  or  less  importance  connected  in  some  way  or  other 
with  the  religion  of  Mithra  or  the  Sun.  .Emm,  where  John  baptized,  was  sacred  to  the  sun, l  and 
had  a  temple  dedicated  to  it.  2  Again,  when  Christ  was  born,  he  was  sought  for  and  worshiped  by 
the  Magi,  who  had  seen  his  star  in  the  East.  Here  is  an  evident  allusion  to  astrology,  properly  so 
called,  as  distinguished  from  astronomy, — the  calculation  of  nativities  by  the  stars,  which  in  all 
ages  has  been  closely  connected  with  magic  and  necromancy.  The  magi  having  arrived  at  Beth- 
lehem, directed  not  by  A  star  but  by  HIS  star,3  made  their  offerings,  and  celebrated  with  pious 
orgies,  along  with  the  angels  who  appeared  at  the  same  time,  the  nativity  of  the  God,  the  Saviour, 
in  the  stable  where  he  was  born :  but  the  stable  was  a  cave,  and  it  is  still  more  remarkable,  though 
it  has  never  been  pointed  out  by  priests  to  their  gaping  congregations,  that  at  THAT  very  time, 
the  24th  December,  at  midnight,  throughout  all  the  Mithraitic  caves  of  Persia,  and  in  the  temples 
throughout  all  the  world,  the  same  orgies  were  really  in  the  act  of  being  celebrated  to  the  honour 
of  the  God  law—the  Saviour,  And  it  appears  that  these  orgies  did  not  cease  for  very  many  years 
after  the  death  of  Jesus,  according  to  St.  Jerom,  in  this  very  cave,  and  if  we  may  believe  Dr. 
Lightfoot,  they  may  not  have  ceased  to  this  time.  The  latter  says,  "Eusebius  reports  that 
"  Bethlehem,  from  the  times  of  Adrian  to  the  times  of  Constantine,  was  profaned  by  the  temple 
"  of  Adonis  :  for  the  asserting  of  which  he  cites  these  words  of  Paulinus:  Hadrianus,  supposing 
"  that  he  should  destroy  the  Christian  faith  by  offering  injury  to  the  place,  in  the  place  of  the  passion, 
66  dedicated  the  image  of  Jupiter,  and  profaned  Bethle/iem  with  the  temple  of  Adonis :  as  also  like 
"  words  of  Hierome :  yet  he  confesses  the  contrary  seems  to  be  in  Origen  against  Celsus :  and 
"  that  more  true.  For  Adrian  had  no  quarrel  with  the  Christians  and  Christianity,  but  with  the 
"  Jews,  that  cursedly  rebelled  against  him/' 4 

Of  Bethlehem  Jerom  says,  "  Bethleem  nunc  nostram,  et  augustissirnum  orbis  locum  de  quo 
"  Psalmista  canit.5      Veritas  de  terra  orta  est,  lucus  inumbrabat  Thamus,  id  est,  Adonidis :  et  in 
"specu  ubi  quondam  Christus  parvulus  vagiit,  Veneris  Amasius  plangebatur," 6     And  Clarke7 
tells  us,  that  the  Christian  ceremonies  in  the  church  of  the  nativity  at  Bethlehem  are  celebrated 

1  See  Vol.  L  p.  110.  8  Bryant,  Heath,  Myth.  Vol.  I.  p.  51,  4to. 

»  Every  Amid  or  Desire  of  all  Nations  had  a  star  to  announce  his  birth  to  mankind.    Thus  Abraham,  Caesar,  &c., 
had  each  his  star. 

*  Lightfoot,  Vol.  II.  Chap.  li.  p.  48,  folio  ed,  *  Psa.  Ixxxiv.  12. 

G  Hieronymus,  Epist.  ad  Paulin,  p.  564.  7  Vol.  IV. 


96  BETHLEHEM,  BIRTH   OF   JESUS   CHRIST, 

to  this  day  in  a  CAVE,  and  are  undoubtedly  nearly  the  same  as  they  %vere  celebrated  in  honour  of 
Adonis  in  the  time  of  Tertulhan  and  Jerom  j  and  as  they  are  yet  celebrated  at  Rome  every  Christ- 
mas-day very  early  in  the  morning. 

From  the  fact,  seemingly  here  established,  that  the  temple  of  Adonis  existed  at  Bethlehem 
before  the  time  of  Adrian,  as  it  is  admitted  by  the  learned  and  Rev.  Dr.  Lightfoot,  it  is  very 
probable  that  it  must  have  existed  before  the  time  of  Jesus ;  and  the  possession  of  droves  of  swine 
by  the  Gergesenes,  and  many  other  circumstances,  induce  me  to  suspect,  that  the  religion  of  the 
Canaanites  and  the  Phoenicians  never  was  entirely  abolished,  but  tolerated  in  different  parts  of 
the  country  among  the  descendants  of  the  original  inhabitants.  If  this  should  be  found  to  be  the 
case,  I  can  readily  believe  that  Magi,  Magicians,  Necromancers,  came  from  a  distance  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  worship,  and  to  celebrate  the  rites  of,  the  new-born  God  and  Saviour ;  and  that 
shepherds  from  the  mountains  should  also  have  assembled  there,  precisely  at  the  same  day  and 
hour,  as  they  yet  do  at  Rome  for  the  same  purpose,  every  24th  of  December.  Indeed,  it  is 
probable  that  something  of  the  kind  happened  every  year,  at  this  season,  at  the  shrine  of  Adonis. 

The  leader  will  recollect  what  was  said  before  by  the  well-known  oriental  Christian,  Abulfara- 
gius  or  Bar  Hebrseus, l  that  there  was  a  prophecy  in  the  oracles  of  Zoroaster,  "  That  a  sacred 
"  personage  should  issue  from  the  womb  of  an  immaculate  Virgin,  and  that  his  coming  would  be 
"  preceded  by  a  brilliant  star,  who&e  light  would  guide  them  to  the  place  of  his  nativity."  2  It 
is  pretty  clear  that  this  is  a  copy  from  the  Gospel  histories,  or  that  the  Gospel  histories  are  copies 
from  it,  or  both  from  a  common  mythos.  And  it  must  be  observed  here,  that  the  story  of  the 
Magi  is  contained  in  a  part  of  the  Gospel  history  which  the  Nazareens,  Ebionites,  Marcionites, 
Socinians,  and  most  of  the  modern  Unitarians,  maintain  to  be  spurious.  If  one  be  a  copy  from 
the  other,  which  is  copied  must  be  left  to  the  reader.  After  all  that  he  has  seen  he  will  pro- 
bably find  little  difficulty.  This  prophecy  is  evidently  alluded  to  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy, 
which  says,  speaking  of  the  Magi  guided  by  a  star,  Quemadmoduni  praedixerat  Zorodustht — 
as  Zoroaster  had  predicted.  This  Gospel  was  received  by  the  Nestorians,  of  whom  Buchanan 
says,  there  are  now  about  50,000  in  Malabar.3  It  is  a  striking  circumstance,  that  the  gifts 
brought  by  the  Magi,  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh,  were  what  were  always  offered  by  the  Arabian 
Magi  to  the  sun. 

This  prophecy  is  again  noticed  by  Chalcidius  in  the  third  century.  Commenting  on  the  Timaeus 
of  Plato  he  says,  "Stella  quam  a  Chaldaais  observatam  fuisse  testantur ;  qui  Dcum  nuper  natum 
muneribus  venerati  sunt— a  star  which  is  attested  by  Chaldean  astronomers,  who  immediately 
hastened  to  adore  and  present  with  gifts  the  nevi-'x>rn  Deity/'4  Chiistians  have  wished  to  make 
a  Christian  of  Chalcidius,  but  the  way  in  which  he  speaks  of  this  Chaldean  tradition,  or  whatever 
it  was,  shews  clearly  enough  what  he  was.  The  observations  of  Chalcidius  were  probably  made 
upon  the  story  of  the  three  Magi,  who,  according  to  Pinto,  came  from  the  East  to  offer  gifts  to 
Socrates  at  his  birth,,  bringing  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh. 5  One  or  both,  or  the  union  of  the 
two  stories,  may  have  formed  a  foundation  for  the  story  of  the  three  kings  coming  to  Herod ; 
and  they  have  probably  both  derived  their  origin  from  the  Hindoo  religion.  This  story  of  the 
Magi  having  been  applied  to  Socrates,  by  Plato,  evidently  proves  that  it  was  part  of  the  ancient 


1  Hysteria  Dynastarum,  p.  54,  ed.  Oxon,  1663.    Although  I  have  given  the  substance  of  what  will  be  found  here 
from  Abulfaragius,  I  think  it  expedient  to  repeat  it.    See  Vol.  I.  p  56 L 

*  Maur  Ind.  Sceptic  confuted,  p  50  3  P.  136  *  Maur.  Ind  Seep,  confuted,  p.  62. 

*  This  story  of  Plato's  I  cannot  point  out  in  his  works,  but  I  was  told  it  by  a  most  respectable  clergyman  at 
Cambridge. 


BOOK   II.    CHAPTER   III.    SECTION    1.  9<p 

mythos  of  the  renewed  incarnation  now  lost.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  found  in  Babylon,  in  Athens, 
and  in  Syria,  and  very  nearly  the  same  in  India. 

M.  D'Hancarville1  says,  "Les  Hymnes  attribues  a  Orphee,  mais  rgdiges  par  Onomacrite  plus 
"  de  500  ans  avant  notre  ere,  sont  des  especes  d'oraisons,  que  Scaliger  croit  avoir  £te  recitees 

"  dans  les  myst£res.. Ce  livre  singulier  est  reconnu  par  un  docteur  en  Sorbonne,  pour 

"  £tre  le  plus  ancien  de  tons  ceux  oii  il  est  parle  de  1'Immaculee  Conception  de  la  Vierge  (Sura, 
"  ill  88)  appelee  Bibi-Mariam,  ou  la  Dame  Marie,  par  les  Turcs,  comme  elle  est  appelee 
"  Notre- Dame,  par  les  Chretiens.  Ces  derniers,  eniployant  a  &a  louange  les  prieres  qu'ils  rejpetent 
"  sur  le  chapelet,  en  ont  sanctifi6  1'usage  apporte  de  Foment  au  terns  des  Croisades,  avec  le  dogme 
"  de  la  Conception  Inimaculee.  Mohamet  le  prit  des  Scythes  on  des  Tartares ;  Scythes,  le 
«*  chef  de  cette  nation,  etoit  fils  d'une  Vierge,  suivant  Diodore. 2  On  pretend  aussi  que  le  Dieu 
**  LA  des  LAMAS  est  116  d'une  Vierge  :  plusieurs  princes  de  1'Asie,  entr'  autres  TEmpereur  Kien- 
"  long,  aujourd'hui  regnant  k  la  Chine,  et  qui  est  de  la  race  de  ces  Tartares  Mandhuis,  qui 
"  conquirent  cet  empire  en  1644,  croit,  et  assure  lui-m£me,  £tre  descendu  d'une  Vierge/'  I 
have  no  doubt  that  the  whole  mythos  exists  in  China,  and  that  it  formerly  existed  in  the  books 
of  the  Jews,  from  which  it  was  taken  after  the  Christian  aera,  because  the  Christians  applied 
the  passages  to  their  Messiah — a  fact  which  has  been  very  satisfactorily  proved  by  Mr.  Whiston. 

Benjamin  Constant  says,  *c  Ce  syst£me  se  rapproche  sous  quelques  rapports  de  la  doctrine 
tfe  Indicnne  sur  les  incarnations  successives  qui  ont  lieu  toutes  les  fois  que  Dieu  veut  faire  con- 
"  noitre  aux  hommes  la  verite.  II  est  assez  remarquable  qu'on  retrouve  une  idee  analogue  dans 
"  une  hypothese  Juive.  Les  Juifs  attribuent  la  m£me  ame  a  Adam,  &  Abraham,  et  a  David,  et 
"  croyaient  que  cette  ame  sera  celle  du  Mebsie.  Ils  pr^tendaient  encore  qu'il  ne  fallait  point 
"  distinguer  filie  de  Phin&s,  fils  du  grand  pretre  Eleazar,  et  que  le  prophete  qui  a  v6cu  parmi 
(( les  hommes,  tantdt  sous  le  nom  de  Phines,  tantdt  sous  celui  d'filie,  n'^tait  point  un  homme, 
"  mais  un  ange  toujours  le  m^me  qui  s'  incarnait  pour  donner  ses  conseilb  au  peuple  de  Dieu.*' 8 

Mr.  Faber, 4  speaking  of  the  prophecy  of  Zoroaster,  which  I  have  formerly  noticed,  says,  cff  The 
"  Magi  of  Persia  had  a  prophecy  handed  down  to  them  from  Zeradusht,  (Zoroaster,)  that  a  Virgin 
"  should  conceive  and  bear  a  child;  that  a  star  should  appear  at  noon-day  and  lead  them  to  it. 
"  You,  my  som,  exclaimed  the  seer,  will  perceive  its  rising  before  any  other  nation.  Js  soon  there- 
" fore  as  you  shall  behold  the  star,  follow  it  whithersoever  it  shall  lead  you;  and  adore  that 
"  mysterious  child,  offering  him  your  gifts  with  profound  humility.  He  is  the  almighty  WORD, 
"  which  created  the  heavens." 

Now,  Mr.  Faber  truly  contends  that  this  prophecy  cannot  be  a  Christian  forgery,  among  other 
reasons,  because  it  is  found  with  the  ancient  Irish  ;  whose  history  states,  that  it  was  made  by  a 
Persian  called  Zeradusht,  and  that  it  was  brought  to  them  by  a  Daru  or  Druid  of  Bokhara,  The 
actual  identity  of  the  rites  and  tenets  of  the  Irish  with  those  of  the  ancients  of  the  East,  as  well 
as  their  existence  in  Ireland  previous  to  the  Christian  sera,  has  been  so  clearly  proved  by  Borlase, 
Davies,  Vallancey,  &c.,  5  that  no  more  need  be  said  about  it.  "  Therefore,"  says  Mr.  Faber, 
"  this  cannot  be  a  Christian  forgery."  The  first  consequence  which  seems  to  follow  from  this 
well-founded  argument  is,  that  Zeradusht  was  a  prophet,  and  that  his  work,  the  Zendavesta,  must 
be  admitted  into  the  canon  of  the  church.  This  not  suiting,  Mr.  Faber  supposes  that  the  Persian 
must  have  seen  the  prophecy  of  Balaam  or  some  other  of  the  ancient  prophecies,  and  have  adapted 
it  to  his  system ;  but  he  very  wisely  omits  specifying  which  prophecy,  as  neither  that  of  Balaam 


1  Res.  sur  1'Origine,  &c.,  p.  186.  *  Bibl.  Lib.  ii.  *  Benj.  Constant,  Vol.  I.  p.  171. 

*  In  Hist.  Orig.  of  Pagan  Idol.  Bk.  Hi.  Ch.  iii.  *  And  by  myself  in  my  Celtic  Druids,  pp.  278,  &c. 

VOL.  If. 


98  BETHLEHEM,   BIRTH   OF   JESUS   CHRIST. 

nor  any  other  says  a  word  about  it :  for  though  Balaam  speaks  of  a  star  to  arise  out  of  Jacob,  he 
says  nothing  like  the  story  of  a  star  coming  from  the  East  and  guiding  any  persons. 

Mr.  Faber's  mode  of  accounting  for  the  history  may  be  very  satisfactory  to  the  person  who  is 
blessed  with  a  lively  faith  $  but  the  story  is  plainly  nothing  but  a  part  of  the  ancient  mythology 
of  the  Magi  and  Brahmins  respecting  Cristna  $  who  was  believed  to  be  an  incarnation  of  the 
Supreme  Being,  of  one  of  the  persons  of  their  holy  and  mysterious  trinity— to  use  their  language, 
the  Lord  and  Saviour — three  Persons  and  one  God. 

Mr.  Faber's  argument  to  prove  the  antiquity  of  this  prophecy,  as  given  at  length  in  his  book, 
seems  quite  satisfactoi'y. 

The  reason  why  the  three  Magi  who  came  to  adore  Jesus  at  his  birth  were  called  kings  was, 
because  the  heads  of  the  Magi  were  always  called  kings.  It  was  a  title  of  honour,  like  what  we 
have  in  our  Heralds'  Office,  Kings  at  Arms.  "  De  non  assumendo  sacerdotio,  testimonium  dat 
"  Cicero,  in  libro  De  Divinatione  referens :  (  Nemo  potuit  esse  Rex,  antequam  coluerat  disci- 
"  'plinam  Magorum  :  nee  magis  ut  quisque  esset  Magus  quam  ut  esset  Rex.*  Istorum  itaque 
«  erat  non  tantum  reges  in  recta  religione  instituere,  sed  et  eos  inaugurare,  ut  in  Christianismo 
"  fieri  solet"1 

"Ex  hujusmodi  Persarum  Magis,  celebriores  aliqui  fuerunt  illi  qui  nostrum  Salvatorem 
"  Christum  in  infantia  visitatum  venerunt  ex  Perside  in  Bethlehem."2 

"  Ab  isto  itaque  Rege  missi  sunt  (vel  saltern,  eo  haud  inscio,  venerunt)  Magi.  Nam  qu6d 
"  Persis  revelata  fuerit  Christ!  nativitas,  certi  suraus  ex  Evangelio :  et  praterea  plerique  autores, 
"  iique  doctiores,  idem  statuunt."  3 

The  real  skulls  of  the  three  kings  of  the  Magi  are  to  be  seen  at  Cologne  ;  they  were  called  Caspar, 
Melchior,  and  Balshazzar.  It  may  here  be  observed,  that  the  Magi  were  an  order  of  men,  not  a 
nation,  as  is  vulgarly  imagined. 

It  has  been  before  observed4  that  the  Trinity  of  Plato  was  correctly  the  Trinity  of  Jesus,  as 
described  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  that  the  two  accounts  travelled  pan  passu,  until  they  arrived 
at  the  famous  verbum  carofadum  est.  This  is  just  as  much  a  part  of  the  Trinitarian  system  as 
the  remainder,  as  is  proved  by  the  Brahmin  history  of  the  incarnation  of  Cristna,  from  which  it 
was  evidently  originally  taken.  The  idea  of  an  incarnate  God  being  among  us  now  in  modern 
times  few  persons  (the  followers  of  Johanna  Southcote  cxcepted)  can  entertain]  but  it  was 
common  to  all  ancient  nations.  Osiris,  Bacchus,  Adonis,  were  all  incarnate  Gods :  taught  by  the 
priests ;  despised  by  the  philosophers ;  believed  by  the  rabble.  They  were  probably  all  derived 
from  the  story  of  Cristna  born  in  the  eighth  month,  which  answers  to  our  December,  on  a  Wed- 
nesday at  midnight,  in  the  house  of  Vasudeva,  his  father,  and  JDevaci, 5  his  mother*0 

Thus  the  verbum  carofadum  est  is  not  peculiar  to  the  Christians,  but  was  in  fact  acknowledged 
in  almost  every  nation  in  the  world.  This  was  the  Logos  of  the  Persians  and  the  Greeks,  whose 
birth  was  originally  fixed  to  the  moment  of  the  winter  solstice.  This  Logos,  we  have  seen,7  was 
the  second  person  of  the  Trinity — the  lao  of  the  Gentiles. 

Tertullian,  Jerom,  and  other  fathers  of  the  church,  inform  us,  that  the  Gentiles  celebrated,  on 
the  25th  of  December  or  on  the  8th  day  before  the  calends  of  January,  the  birth  of  the  God  Sol, 
under  the  name  of  Adonis,  in  a  cave,  like  that  of  Mithra,  (in  Persia  Mithra  ;  iu  Egypt,  Phoenicia 
and  Biblis,  Admis,)  and  that  the  cave  wherein  they  celebrated  his  mysteries  was  that  in  which 


i  Hyde  de  Rel.  Vet.  Pers.  Cap.  xxx.  p.  373.  *  Ib.  Cap*  xxxi.  p.  381.  3  Ib.  p.  385. 

<  Vol.  I.  pp.  121,  160,  62?.  &  Ib.  p.  139.  6  Maur.  Brara.  Fraud,  exposed. 

»  Vol.  I,  pp.  119— 122. 


BOOK  II.     CHAPTER  III.     SECTION  1.  99 

Christ  was  born  in  the  city  of  Bethlehem,  or,  according  to  the  strict  meaning  of  the  word  Beth- 
lehem, in  the  city  of  the  house  of  the  sun.1  This  God  Adonis  is  really  and  literally  the  Hebrew 
word  pK  Adn9  yet  retained  in  the  Welsh  Celtic  Adon^ 2  which  is  translated  into  Latin  Dominus, 
into  Greek  Kopfo^,  and  into  English  Lord,  the  peculiar  name  of  honour  given  to  Jesus  Christ. 

On  this  day,  at  the  moment  of  its  commencement,  the  followers  of  Mithra  began  to  celebrate 
the  birth  of  their  God.  He  was  born  in  a  grotto  or  cave  precisely  as  Jesus  Christ  was.  For 
though,  in  our  Gospels,  he  is  said  to  be  born  in  a  stable,  yet  in  the  holy  land,  at  Bethlehem,  the 
place  exhibited  is  a  cave.  The  stable  no  doubt  was  in  a  cave.  The  early  fathers  of  the  church 
acknowledge  that  the  most  probable  of  all  the  suppositions  of  the  Pagans  respecting  the  origin  of 
the  religion,  was  that  of  those  who  derived  it  from  the  Persians. 

The  same  God  was  believed,  by  the  inhabitants  of  Persia,  Asia  Minor,  and  Armenia,  under  the 
name  of  Mithra,  to  have  been  born  in  a  cave  on  the  25th  of  December,  to  have  been  put  to 
death,  and  to  have  risen  again  on  the  25th  of  March.  In  their  mysteries  the  body  of  a  young  man, 
apparently  dead,  was  exhibited,  which  was  feigned  to  be  restored  to  life.  By  his  sufferings  he 
was  believed  to  have  worked  their  salvation,  and  on  this  account  he  was  called  their  Saviour. 
His  priests  watched  his  tomb  to  the  midnight  of  the  vigil  of  the  25th  of  March,  with  loud  cries, 
and  in  darkness  5  when  all  at  once  the  light  burst  forth  from  all  parts,  and  the  priest  cried, 
Rejoice,  oh  sacred  initiated,  your  God  is  risen.  His  death)  his  pains,  and  sufferings  have  worked 
your  salvation. 3 

In  every  case  the  God  is  supposed  to  become  incarnate:  in ' every  case  the  place  in  which  he 
was  actually  born  was  exhibited  to  the  people.  The  night  of  the  24th  December  the  Persians  call 
the  Night  of  Light.  Stukeley  observes,  that  the  worship  of  Mithra  was  spread  over  all  Gaul  and 
Britain.  The  Druids  kept  this  night  as  a  great  festival,  and  called  the  day  following  it  Nollagh 
or  Noel,4  or  the  day  of  regeneration,5  and  celebrated  it  with  great  fires  on  the  tops  of  their 
mountains,  which  they  repeated  on  the  day  of  the  Epiphany  or  twelfth  night.  The  Mithraic 
monuments,  which  are  common  in  Britain,  have  been  attributed  to  the  Romans,  but  this  festival 
(in  consequence  of  its  being  kept  by  the  Druids)  proves  that  the  Mithraic  worship  was  there  prior 
to  their  arrival.  The  Romans  took  nothing  from  the  Druids,  but  on  the  contrary  persecuted  them, 
and  put  all  whom  they  could  make  prisoners  to  the  sword. 

At  the  first  moment  after  midnight  of  the  24th  of  December,  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  by 
common  consent,  celebrated  the  accouchement  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  of  the  Celestial  Virgin  of 
the  sphere,  and  the  birth  of  the  God  Sol,  the  infant  Orus  or  Aur,  the  God  of  Day,  called  by  the 
Gentiles  the  hope  and  promise  of  all  nations,  the  Saviour  of  mankind  from  the  empire  of  Ahriman 
and  darkness. 

The  Egyptians  celebrated  the  birth  of  the  son  of  Isis  on  the  25th  of  December,  or  the  8th  day 
before  the  calends  of  January.  This  Eratosthenes  says  was  the  God  of  Day,  and  that  Isis  or 
Ceres  was  symbolical  of  the  year.  The  son  of  the  Holy  Fvrgin,  as  they  called  Ceres,  was  Osiris  : 
lie  was  born  on  the  25th  of  December.  At  his  birth,  Plutarch  says,  that  a  voice  was  beard,  saying, 
"  On  this  day  is  born  the  supreme  Lord  of  the  universe,  the  beneficent  king  Osiris."  On  this  day, 
at  the  same  moment,  the  Romans  began  to  celebrate  the  feast  of  the  Brumalia  in  honour  of  the 


1  Dupuib,  Tome  III.  p  51,  ed.  4to. 

*  And,  fi  om  this  word,  all  the  rivers  called  Di>n  have  derived  their  names. 

3  Dupuis,  Vol.  II,  p,  194 ;  Vol.  III.  pp.  41,  51,  62,  84. 

4  Noel  is  the  French  »ame  for  Christmas-day.  *  Vail,  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  III.  p,  464. 

o2 


100  BIRTH,   DEATH,  AND  RESURRECTION   O#   ALL  THE  GODS. 

birth  of  the  God  of  Day— of  the  Sol  invincible— Natalis  Soils  invicti— described  in  vast  numbers 
of  very  old  pictures  in  Italy,  with  the  legend  Deo  Soli,  perhaps  mistaken  by  the  monks,  and  thus 
retained  ;  or  perhaps  having  a  secret  meaning. 

It  is  remarkable  that  we  have  very  few  examples  of  infant  Gods  among  the  Greeks  and  Roman s, 
though  we  have  them  in  innumerable  instances  in  Egypt ;  but  I  suppose  them  ail  to  have  been 
converted  into  Madonnas.  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  great  numbers  of  the  examplars  of  the 
BLACK  Mother  and  Child  were  infant  Jupiters,  or  at  least  infant  Gods  5  indeed,  I  should  think 
every  one  of  them :  for,  wherever  there  was  a  black  child  painted  on  an  old  wall,  if  it  were 
renewed,  it  was  painted  like  its  predecessor  black.  This  I  myself  have  seen  done  in  Italy.  Cicero 
says,1  "  Is  est  hodie  locus  septus  religiose  propter  Jovis  Pueri,  qui  lactens  cum  Junone  Fortunes 
c<  in  gremio  sedens  mammam  appetens,  castissimS  colitur  a  matribus."  Bryant  notices  an  inscrip- 
tion in  Gruter  : 2  Fortune  Primigenise  Jovis  Pueri,  D.  D. 

Again,  Bono  Deo  Puero  Posphoro,3 

All  the  boy  Gods  which  were  not  destroyed,  were  adopted  as  Bambinos.4 

Nothing  is  more  common  in  the  North  of  England  for  the  sign  of  an  inn,  than  the  black  boy.  I 
very  much  suspect,  that  the  little  Negro,  as  he  is  always  described,  is  an  infant  Cristna. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  by  some,  that  the  observations  which  I  shall  have  to  make  on  the 
celebrated  lamb  of  God  ought  to  have  come  here,  but  on  consideration  I  have  judged  it  better  first 
to  make  a  few  observations  on  the  resurrection. 

2.  Throughout  all  the  ancient  world  we  have  seen  that  the  birth  of  the  God  Sol,  under  different 
names,  was  celebrated  on  the  25th  of  December,5  the  day  of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  Thus,  in  similar 
accordance  with  the  history  of  Jesus,  the  God  Sol,  on  the  23d  of  March,  was,  by  one  means  or 
another,  put  to  death  :  and  exactly  three  months  succeeding  the  25th  of  December,  viz.  on  the  25th 
of  March,  he  was  believed  to  be  raised  to  life  again ;  and  his  resurrection  was  celebrated  with 
great  rejoicings. 

The  most  important  of  all  the  different  parts  of  the  complicated  system  of  Christianity,  are  the 
Crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Resurrection  from  the  dead.  It  will  now  be  my  duty  to  shew 
whence  the  collectors  of  traditions  drew  these  particulars  respecting  him ;  where  the  great  men, 
the  venerable  fathers,  who  believed  that  there  were  four  Gospels  because  there  were  four  winds — 
that  men  were  raised  from  the  dead  ssBpissim& — that  boys  were  denied  and  girls  became  pregnant 
by  demons— found  these  traditions,  and  applied  them  to  a  person  said  to  be  put  to  death  in 
Judea. 

The  reader  has  already  seen  that  Jesus  was  mistaken  for  lao  or  the  Sun,  and  that  all  the  Gods 
—Bacchus,  Osiris,  Hercules,  Adonis,  &c.,  were  personifications  of  that  great  luminary.  As  Jesus 
and  lao  were  both  born  on  the  25th  December,  it  follows  that  as  Jesus  rose  again  on  the  25th  of 
March,  the  Vernal  Equinox,  after  being  cruelly  put  to  death  ;  so  the  different  incarnations  of  lao, 
from  whom  his  birth  was  copied,  should  be  found  to  have  been  put  to  death  in  a  similar  manner : 
and  this  we  shall  presently  find  was  exactly  the  fact. 

The  resurrection  of  the  human  body  to  life  and  immortality,  which  was  one  of  the  leading 
doctrines  of  the  Persian  Magi,  is  of  such  an  artificial  nature,  and  includes  in  it  so  many  circum- 
stances apparently  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  our  senses,  that  it  is  the  acme  of  absurdity  to 
suppose,  that  two  nations  should  arrive  at  the  same  result  by  any  common  chain  of  reasoning. 


De  Divin.  Lib.  iL  41.  *  Ixxvi.  n.  6  and  n.  7-  3  Gruter,  hcxxviii.  n,  13. 

See  Bryant's  Anal  Vol.  I.  p.  125.  *  Dupuis,  Vol.  III.  pp.  1 1?,  1 18.  ed.  4to. 


BOOK  II,    CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  2,  ]Q1 

Hence  it  is  evident,  where  such  coincidence  is  found  one  must  have  copied  from  the  other,  or  they 
must  have  drawn  from  a  common  source. 

It  must  be  recollected  that  it  is  not  the  mere  resuscitation  of  a  person  newly  deceased  to  life : 
it  is  the  re-collection  of  the  parts  of  a  body  long  since  reduced  to  a  mass  of  filth  and  corruption, 
or  scattered  in  dust  by  the  winds  or  waves,  eaten  by  animals  of  various  kinds,  and  thus  by  be- 
coming component  parts  of  them,  and  converted  by  man  to  the  support  of  his  life,  they  form  fresh 
subjects  for  resurrection  to  immortality— each  part  by  some  miraculous  process  unknown  to  us 
still  supporting  its  identity :  each  man,  though  by  this  process  forming  parts  of  thousands  of  other 
men,  and  they  again  parts  of  thousands  or  millions  of  others,  still  retaining  his  absolute  original 
identity,  and  the  thousands  or  millions  whose  bodies  had  been  partly  composed  of  his  body  or  of 
the  bodies  of  each  other  in  succession,  all,  like  the  original  first  man,  rising  to  life  and  immortality. 
The  subject  is  appalling :  the  divines  say,  when  pressed  upon  it,  that  at  the  resurrection  the  body 
will  be  changed  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  into  a  spiritual  body.  As  the  word  spirit  is  in  meaning 
exactly  the  opposite  of  the  word  body,  substance,  or  thing,  they  may  as  well  say,  that  a  some-thing 
will  be  raised  to  life  and  immortality  in  the  form  of  a  no~ihing.  But  we  must  leave  this  to  the 
divines  j  those  of  them  are  the  wisest  who  pronounce  it  a  mystery,  and  therefore  beyond  our 
comprehension — a  thing  to  be  believed,  not  to  be  discussed  or  reasoned  about. 

We  are  told  by  Diogenes  Laertius,  that  the  ancient  Persians  or  the  Magi  believed  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  body.  To  go  no  further,  his  evidence  is  unquestionable.  But  the  following 
extract  from  Beausobre1  will  place  the  matter  out  of  the  reach  of  doubt : 

**  The  Sadduceeism  of  Manes  did  not  consist  certainly  in  denying  the  existence  of  spirits,  (des 
"  esprits,)  their  immortality^  and  the  punishments  and  rewards  after  death.  So  far  from  this, 
"  that  Sharastani  puts  among  his  dogmas  not  only  that  thought,  but  that  the  sensible  faculties  of 
"  seeing  and  hearing  are  never  lost.  It  follows,  then,  that  he  could  not  have  denied  the  resurrec- 
"  tiou  of  the  body.  In  fact,  the  Magi  believed  in  the  resurrection,  as  Diogenes  Laertiua  testifies.2 
"  It  was  one  of  the  articles  of  the  religion  of  Zoroaster.3  Mr.  Hyde  had  no  doubt  that  the  Magi 
"  had  taught  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  \  and,  besides  the  testimony  of  the  ancients,  whom  he 
"  produces  to  confirm  it,  he  cites  a  relation  which  had  been  sent  to  him  from  the  Indies,  in  which 
"  the  ancient  faith  of  the  Persians  is  explained  and  the  resurrection  positively  taught.4  If  I  am 
"  asked,  what  idea  the  Persians  had  of  the  resurrection,  I  answer,  that,  apparently,  they  had  the 
"  same  idea  as  the  Jews :  with  bodies,  the  same  as  at  present ;  with  the  same  organs ;  the 
"  same  animal  functions ;  (I  know  not  any  that  were  excepted ;)  to  drink,  to  eat,  to  have  women  : 
"  to  live  a  tranquil  and  delicious  life  upon  the  earth,  purified  by  fire,  was  the  hope  of  the  Persians, 
"  as  was  that  of  the  Jews,  who  never  spoke  so  clearly  of  the  resurrection  as  since  they  were 
"  captive  with  the  Assyrians.  It  is  only  since  that  time  that  the  sects  of  Pharisees  and  Sadducees 
«  existed." 

Here  we  see  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  proved  to  have  been  the  doctrine  of  Zoroaster  or  of 
the  Persians,  upon  evidence  of  the  most  unquestionable  kind.  It  seems  impossible  to  doubt  the 
fact.  This  is  not  a  mere  future  state  of  life  \  it  is  the  actual  resurrection  of  St.  Paul,  with  a  real 


i  Tome  II.  Liv.  ii.  Ch.  iv,  p,  204  a  Diog.  Laer.  in  Proem. 

s  Idem  p  383   "  Credunt  etiam  resurrectionem  mortuorum,  et  ultimum  judicium,  in  quo  bom  a  mails  distinguentur," 
&c ,  Hyde,  de  Rel.  Vet.  Pers.  Cap.  xxviii.  p,  355. 
4  Idem  p,  293,  and  Appendix,  p.  53?. 


102  BIRTH,    DKATH,   AND    RESURRECTION   OF   ALL  THE   GODS. 

body,  but  yet  with  a  spiritual  body,  i.  e.  a  body  purified  by  fire,  as  it  is  here  described.  It  is  an 
exact  picture  of  the  enjoyments  of  the  Christians  during  the  expected  Millenium,  and  the  reign  of 
Jesus  upon  earth  for  a  thousand  years — the  Hindoo  renewal  of  the  cycle  of  the  age  of  gold. 

But  a  belief  in  the  resurrection  was  not  confined  to  Persia;  it  extended,  like  the  doctrine  of  the 
immaculate  conception  and  solstitial  birth,  to  every  nation  in  the  world. 

Osiris  was  cruelly  murdered  by  his  brother  Typhon,  on  his  return  from  a  progress  in  which  he 
had  performed  many  great  actions  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  The  place  of  his  burial  was  claimed 
by  different  provinces  of  Egypt.  Relics  of  him  were  shewn  in  the  temple  of  Philse.  To  swear  by 
those  relics  was  the  most  sacred  oath  of  the  Egyptians.  l  In  their  caves  or  the  adyta  of  their 
temples  they  annually,  during  the  mysteries  of  Isis,  celebrated  the  misfortunes  and  tragical  death  of 
Osiris,  in  a  species  of  drama,  in  which  all  the  particulars  were  exhibited  3  accompanied  with  loud 
lamentations  and  every  mark  of  sorrow.  At  this  time  his  images  were  carried  in  procession 
covered,  as  were  those  in  the  temples,  with  black  veils.2  On  the  25th  of  March,  exactly  three 
months  from  his  birth,  his  resurrection  from  the  dead  was  celebrated,  as  already  mentioned  in 
reference  to  other  Gods,  with  great  festivity  and  rejoicings. 

The  birth  of  Horus,  the  son  of  Isis,  was  also  celebrated,  in  another  part  of  Egypt,  like  that  of 
Osiris,  and  at  the  same  time.  His  death  and  resurrection  were,  in  a  similar  manner,  celebrated 
on  the  25th  of  March.  They  were  the  same  Gods,  in  fact,  only  under  different  names.  3  This 
was  the  reason  why  these  religions  seldom  occasioned  any  intolerance,  persecution,  or  religious 
wars. 

The  birth-place  of  Bacchus,  called  Sabazius  or  Sabaoth,  was  claimed  by  several  places  in 
Greece  ;  but  on  mount  Zelmissus,  in  Thrafce,  his  worship  seems  to  have  been  chiefly  celebrated. 
He  was  born  of  a  virgin  on  the  25th  of  December;  he  performed  great  miracles  for  the  good  of 
mankind ;  particularly  one  in  which  he  changed  water  into  wine  \  he  rode  in  a  triumphal  proces- 
sion on  an  ass  \  he  was  put  to  death  by  the  Titans,  and  u>se  again  from  the  dead  on  the  25th  of 
March  :  he  was  always  called  the  Saviour, 4  In  his  mysteries,  he  was  shewn  to  the  people,  as  an 
kfant  is  by  the  Christians  at  this  day,  on  Christmas-day  morning  in  Rome.  On  the  23d  of 
March,  the  dead  body  of  a  young  man  was  exhibited,  with  great  lamentations,  and  on  the  25th 
it  was  supposed  to  be  revived, 5  when  grand  rejoicings  took  place,  as  in  the  other  instances  already 
specified. 

In  Crete,  Jupiter  Ammon,  or  the  Sun  in  Aries,  was  painted  with  the  attributes  of  the  equi- 
noxial  sign  of  the  lamb.  This  Ammon,  who,  as  Martianus  Capella  informs  us,  was  the  same  with 
Osiris,  Adonis,  Atys,  &c.,  had  his  tomb  and  religious  mysteries ;  and,  though  I  have  not  foand 
so  much  respecting  his  birth,  death,  &a,  as  of  some  of  the  others,  they  were  probably  all  alike. 

Apollo  had  his  tomb  at  Delphi,  where  his  body  was  deposited  after  he  had  been  killed  by  Python. 
Three  women  bewailed  his  death,  analogous  to  the  three  women,  Mary  Magdalene,  Mary  the 
mother  of  James,  and  Salome,  who  bewailed  the  death  of  Jesus.  He  was  called  the  Logos,  the 
light  which  had  come  into  the  world  to  enlighten  it.  Python  was  the  great  serpent  of  the  pole, 
which  annually  brings  back  the  autumn,  the  cold,  the  snow,  and  darkness — over  which  Apollo 


*  Maur.  Ind.  Ant.  Vol.  III.  p.  214,  8vo*  ed. 

*  At  this  time  of  the  year  the  images  in  Italy  are  all  covered,  in  like  manner,  with  black  veik,  even  to  this  day 
jiny  one  may  see  who  will  go  thither  a  little  before  Easter. 

*  Dupuis,  Vol.  II.  Liv,  ii.  Pt.  ii.  p.  194.  4  Ib.  pp.  195,  197,  and  notes.  •>  Ibid. 


BOOK    II.    CHAFFER   III.    SECTION    2.  103 

triumphs  when  he  returns  to  the  sign  of  the  lamb  at  the  vernal  equinox,  thus  restoring  the 
empire  of  light,  with  all  its  blessings.  Pythagoras  engraved  on  this  tomb  some  mysterious 
verses,  l  which  proves  that  he  was  a  devotee  or  follower  of  this  God,  who  was  Apollo  of  Claros, 
of  whom  I  have  formerly  treated.2  The  three  Marys,  of  whom  we  read  so  much,  were  known  in 
Gaul  long  before  the  time  of  Christ ;  and  in  England,  for  there  is  an  altar  at  Doncaster,  Tribus 
Matribtts,  tribus  Mariebus. 3 

Three  Goddesses,  called  Mair<z,  were  worshiped  at  Metz. 4 

In  front  of  a  temple  at  Metz  was  the  following  inscription  : 

"  In  honore  Domfts  Divi 
Naedis  Mairabus 
Vicani  vici  Pacis" & 

In  the  following  extract,  from  an  anonymous  author,  the  same  story  is  shewn  to  exist  in  India  : 
"  The  Eleusinian  mysteries  are  applicable  to  the  mythological  account  of  Buddha,  the  son  of 
"  Maya,  who,  as  the  God  of  Love,  is  named  Cam-deo,  Cam,  and  Cama :  signifying  *  desire :' 
"  evidently  the  Grecian  Eros  :  in  this  character,  the  Hindoos  profess  that  he  aimed  an  arrow 
ee  from  his  flowery  bow,  at  the  heart  of  the  supreme  God,  Maha-Deo  :  for  which  offence  he  was 
"  punished  by  a  flame  of  fire  descending  and  consuming  his  corporeal  nature.  Then  follows  a 
"  procession  of  priests,  who  accompany  his  widowed  consort :  the  beloved  Keti,  who  bears  an 
"  urn,  containing  the  ashes  of  the  God,  amidst  the  tears  and  lamentations  of  the  people.  Heaven 
"  and  earth  are  said  equally  to  lament  the  loss  of  *  divine  love:'  insomuch  that  Maha-deo  was 
"  moved  to  pity,  and  exclaimed,  *  Rise,  holy  love  P  on  which  Cama  is  restored,  and  the  lamenta- 
"  tions  changed  into  the  mofat  enthusiastic  joy,  The  heavens  are  said  to  have  echoed  back  the 
"  exulting  sound,  that  the  deity,  supposed  to  be  lost,  was  restored,  e  hell's  great  dread,  and 
"  heaven's  eternal  admiration.9  ** 

"  Thus  M&ru  is  the  worldly  temple  of  the  Supreme  Being,  in  an  embodied  state,  and  of  the 
"  Trimurti  or  sacred  Triad,  which  resides  on  its  summit,  either  in  a  single,  or  threefold  temple,  or 
"  rather  in  both,  for  it  is  all  one,  as  they  are  one  and  three.  They  are  three,  only  with  regard  to 
"  men  involved  in  the  gloom  of  worldly  illusion  :  but  to  men  who  have  emerged  out  of  it,  they  are 
"  but  one :  and  their  threefold  temple,  and  mountain  with  its  three  peaks,  become  one  equally, 
"  Mythologists  in  the  West  called  the  world,  or  Meru9  with  its  appendages,  the  temple  of  God, 
"  according  to  Macrobius,  This  worldly  temple  is  also  considered,  by  the  followers  of  Buddha, 
**  as  the  tomb  of  the  son  of  the  spirit  of  heaven,  whom  I  conceive  to  be  the  first  man,  re- emerging 
"  in  every  calpa,  or  the  first  lawgiver,  often  confounded  with  the  first  man.  His  bones  or  limbs 
*<  were  scattered  all  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  like  those  of  Osiris  and  Jupiter  Zagrseus.  To  collect 
"  them  was  the  first  duty  of  his  descendants  and  followers,  and  then  to  entomb  the*n.  Out  of  filial 
"  piety,  the  remembrance  of  this  mournful  search  was  yearly  kept  up  by  a  fictitious  one,  with  all 
"  possible  marks  of  grief  and  sorrow,  till  a  priest  announced,  that  the  sacred  relics  were  at  last 
ce  found.  This  is  practised  to  this  day  by  several  Tartarian  tribes  of  the  religion  of  Buddha :  and 
"  the  expression  of  the  bones  of  the  son  of  the  spirit  of  heaven  is  peculiar  to  the  Chinese,  and  some 
"  tribes  in  Tartary/* c  The  latter  part  of  this  passage  identifies  the  worship  of  Buddha  with  that 
of  Osiris,  Adonis,  Bacchus,  and  the  other  Western  Gods,  whose  followers  observed  this  ceremony. 

1  Dupuis,  Vol.  II.  Pt,  ii,  pp.  2,  195.  *  Vol.  L  pp.  324,  3'2&  *  Ibid,  pj>,  310,  593. 

4  Montf.  Ant  Explained,  Pt.  ii,  Liv.  v,  Ch.  v. 

4  Trans.  Acad.  Ins.  Anno  1733,>  35.    [See  a  nearly  similar  inscription  in  tLe  Author's^/  volume,  p.  310. 
Asiat.  Res.  Vol.  X,  p,  129. 


s 


104  PASSOVER. 

It  is  peculiar  to  the  worshipers  of  the  Bull.    The  Lamb,  Hercules,  or  Cristna,  was  slain,  but  his 
bones  were  never  in  this  manner  collected. 

The  same  account  is  given  of  Atys.  His  worship  prevailed  more  particularly  in  Phrygia. 
Various  histories  were  given  of  him  in  different  places,  but  all  terminated  in  the  usual  way  with 
his  being  put  to  death,  and  being  raised  to  life  again  on  the  25th  of  March.  As  Jesus  was  said  to 
be  suspenses  in  ligno,  so  was  Atys.  It  is  useless  to  enter  into  particulars ;  they  may  be  found 
WITH  ALL  THE  AUTHORITIES  cited  by  Dupuis  under  the  head  Atys;1  as  may  those  of  Osiris, 
Mithra,  Bacchus,  &c.,  under  their  respective  heads.  It  has,  I  think,  been  sufficiently  proved,  that 
Bacchus  and  Hercules  answered  to  the  Buddha  and  Cristna  of  India,  and  that  the  Western  nations 
uere  only  copyists  of  those  of  the  East.  If  the  reader  will  turn  back  to  Volume  I.  pp.  144,  he 
will  see  there,  that  Cristna  was  made  "  perir  sur  un  bois  fatal  (un  arbre),  ou  il  fut  cloue  d'un  coup 
de  fl£che,  et  du  haut  duquel  il  predit  les  maux  qui  allaient  fondre  sur  la  terre." 

Certain  priests  of  the  Church  of  England  account  for  the  location  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ 
on  the  same  day  as  that  of  Adonis,  Mithra,  &c.,  by  saying,  that  it  is  known  not  to  have  been  his 
actual  birth-day,  but  that  it  was  adopted  by  the  church  the  more  readily  to  draw  the  Pagans  to  the 
true  faith.  The  only  answer  necessary  to  be  given  to  these  persons  is,  that  those  of  them  who 
have  any  information  at  all  upon  the  subject  know9  that  the  question  of  the  day  was  a  subject  of 
great  dispute  among  the  early  Christians,  and  THEY  KNOW  also  very  well,  that  the  reason  they 
assign  has  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it. 

In  ancient  authors  we  constantly  read  of  the  burials  and  funeral  obsequies  of  the  Heathen  Gods, 
and  we  are  told  that  their  bodies  were  interred  at  different  places.  Now  I  think  this  is  a  mistake9 
and  that  these  obsequies  were  only  the  originals,  and,  in  fact,  were  precisely  of  the  same  nature 
as  the  obsequies  of  the  Romish  Church  for  deceased  kings  and  popes.  At  the  time  I  am  writing 
this,  those  rites  have  been  celebrated  for  the  deceased  Pope  Leo  the  Tenth  at  various  places  in 
Christendom.  Except  the  great  Pyramid,  where  the  bones  of  the  Beeve  were  found,  be  one  of 
them,  I  have  never  met  with  the  ruins  of  any  monument  which  could  be  considered  those  of  one 
of  the  Gods. 

3.  The  resurrection  of  Christ  was  fixed  precisely  to  the  time  of  the  Passover  of  the  Jews,  of 
which  passover  I  shall  now  treat* 

Cedrenus  fixes  the  primitive  creation  to  the  25th  of  March.  The  first  day  of  the  first  month, 
he  says,  is  the  first  of  the  month  Nisan,  which  answers  to  the  25th  of  March  of  the  Romans. 
In  this  day  Gabriel  gave  the  salutation  to  Mary  to  conceive  the  Saviour.  On  the  same  day  the 
God,  the  Saviour,  rose  again  from  the  dead — that  day  which  the  ancient  fathers  called  the  passover 
or  the  passage  of  the  Lord.  The  ancient  fathers  fixed  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord  to  take  place 
on  the  25th  of  March.  Cedrenus  represents  Christ  as  having  died  in  the  nineteenth  year  of  Tibe- 
lius,  on  the  23d  of  March,  and  to  have  risen  again  on  the  25th.  From  this  comes  the  custom, 
he  says,  of  celebrating  the  Passover  on  the  25th  of  March,  On  this  day  the  true  light  rose  from 
the  tomb.  Though  the  festival  of  the  resurrection  is  now  on  the  Sunday  after  the  full  moon  of 
the  equinox,  it  was  formerly  on  the  25th  of  March,  as  Cedrenus  asserts.  This  is  confirmed  by 
Theodore  of  Gaza. 2  This  festival  is  known  iu  the  writings  of  the  fathers  by  the  name  pervigilium 
paschce*  St,  Augustin  has  a  sermon  entitled,  De  Esu  Agni  in  pervigilio  Paschae.  "  It  is  on  this 
"  day,"  says  this  father,  "  that  the  Lamb  who  takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world  is  slain  for  the 
"  salvation  of  man.  On  this  day  our  gates  ought  to  be  marked  with  blood.  Let  us  prepare  for 
"  the  immolation  of  the  Lamb."  Isidore,  of  Seville,  speaks  in  the  same  manner  of  the  Pervigi- 


1  Asiafc.  Res.  Vol.  X.  *  Dupuis,  Vol.  III.  p.  56. 


BOOK    II.       CHAPTER    III.      SECTION  3.  105 

Hum  Pascha.  Lactantius  says  the  same  thing,  and  fixes  the  middle  of  the  night  for  the  rising  of 
Christ  from  the  tomb.  Constantine  was  accustomed  to  cause  the  town  where  he  was  at  this  time 
to  be  illuminated,  so  that  it  was  as  light  as  noon- day. 

The  following  passage  from  Georgius  will  shew,  that  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Buddha 
took  place  precisely  at  t/ie  same  time  as  all  the  others  ;  In  plenilunio  men  sis  tertii,  quo  mors  Xacae 
accidit.1 

Sir  William  Drummond  has  endeavoured  to  shew  that  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation,  in 
Genesis,  and  also  various  other  parts  of  the  Pentateuch,  had  allegorical  meanings,  and  were  de- 
scriptive of  the  correction  of  the  ancient  calendar,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes,  had  fallen  into  great  confusion,  and  had  caused  great  confusion  also  in  the  mysteries 
and  festivals  of  the  Jews.  It  seems  from  almost  every  part  of  his  work,  that  previous  to  the  time 
of  Moses  the  Bull  must  have  been  the  equinoctial  sign,  though  it  may,  perhaps,  have  ceased  to  be 
so  for  some  time.  The  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  taken  as  the  standards  of  the  tribes,  and  Taurus,  Leo, 
Aquarius,  (or  the  man  carrying  water,)  and  Scorpio,  being  evidently  the  signs  of  the  equinoxes 
and  solstices,  are  a  proof  of  it.  The  four  equinoctial  signs  in  the  chariot,  as  it  is  called,  of  Ezekiel, 
is  another  proof  of  it. 

The  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  with  the  exception  of  the  Scorpion,  which  was  exchanged  by  Dan  for 
the  Eagle,  were  carried  by  the  different  tribes  of  the  Israelites  on  their  standards ;  and  Taurus, 
Leo,  Aquarius,  and  Scorpio  or  the  Eagle,  the  four  signs  of  Reuben,  Judah,  Ephraim,  and  Dan, 
were  placed  at  the  four  corners — the  four  cardinal  points — of  their  encampment,  evidently  in 
allusion  to  the  cardinal  points  of  the  sphere,  the  equinoxes  and  solstices,  when  the  equinox  was 
in  Taurus.  Aben  Ezra  says,  that  the  cherubim  in  the  temple  had  also  the  faces  of  those  four 
signs.  See  Parkhurst's  Lexicon.  These  are  evidently  the  cherubim  described  by  Ezekiel,  and 
also  the  beasts  described  by  John,  full  of  eyes  before  and  behind,  and  having  the  likenesses  of  a 
a  Calf,  a  Lion,  a  Man,  and  an  Eagle,  All  these  coincidences  prove  that  this  religious  system  had 
its  origin  before  the  Bull  ceased  to  be  an  equinoctial  sign,  and  prove  also,  that  the  religion  of  Moses 
was  originally  the  same  in  its  secret  mysteries  with  that  of  the  Heathens— or,  if  my  reader  like  it 
better,  that  the  Heathen  secret  mysteries  were  the  same  as  those  of  Moses. 

It  is  also  clear  that  the  equinoctial  sign  mu&t  have  changed  from  Taurus  to  Aries,  before  Moses 
ordained  that  the  beginning  of  the  year  should  open  with  the  month  Nisan,  I  can  scarcely  con- 
ceive how  any  proof  can  be  more  convincing  of  the  change  which  Moses  was  carrying  into 
effect.2 

If  any  unprejudiced  person  would  read  the  accounts  of  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  the  passage  of  the 
angel  over  the  houses  of  the  Israelites,  when  the  first-born  of  the  Egyptians  were  slain,  the  hard- 
ness of  Pharaoh's  heart,  &c.,  &c.,  and  give  an  honest  opinion,  he  certainly  must  admit  that  they 
are  absolutely  incredible.  Then  what  are  we  to  make  of  them  ?  The  fact  is,  they  are  parts 
of  an  astronomical  allegory — if  not  invented,  at  least  compiled  or  written  about  the  time  allotted  to 
the  reigns  of  the  first  three  kings,  Saul,  David,  and  Solomon,  The  whole  history  of  the  plagues, 
&c.,  keeps  pace  very  well  with  the  Labours  of  Hercules,  the  Conquests  of  Bacchus,  the  Argo- 
nautic  Expedition,  &c, ;  each  literally  believed  by  the  people,  and  each  in  its  literal  sense  despised 
by  the  CHIEF  priests,  whose  object  in  that  age,  as  in  this,  was  and  is  to  keep  mankind  in  ignorance 
and  darkness. 

Sir  Wm,  Drummond  has  shewn  very  satisfactorily  that  the  feast  of  the  Passover,  veiled  under 
the  story  of  the  Exod  from  Egypt,  is  nothing  more  than  the  Egyptian  festival  which  was  cele- 


1  Georg  Alph.  Tib.  p,  510.  *  See  Dupuis,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  240. 

VOL.  II.  P 


106  LAMB   OF  GOD. 

brated  at  the  vernal  equinox  $ l  in  which,,  under  one  emblem  or  allegorical  personage  or  another, 
two  natural  events  were  celebrated— the  triumph  of  Ormasdes  over  Ahriman,  of  light  over  dark- 
ness, the  ascension  of  the  God  Sol  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  hemisphere  5  and  the  passage  of  the 
vernal  equinox  from  Taurus  to  Aries.  The  same  allegory  applies  with  great  truth  and  precision 
to  both ;  and  J  am  quite  certain  it  was  meant  for  both. 

The  same  festival  we  also  found  in  the  Yajna  sacrifice  of  the  Hindoos.2 

In  the  accommodation  of  the  history  of  the  Exod  from  Egypt  to  the  passage  of  the  Sun,  we 
have  a  striking  example  of  the  mythic  spirit.  When  we  consider  that  this  passage  festival  of  the 
Sun  is  celebrated  at  the  same  moment  with  the  Jewish  festival,  with  nearly  the  same  rites  and 
ceremonies  by  almost  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  and  we  consider  also  the  way  in  which  the 
triumph  of  the  sun  is  celebrated  in  them  all  by  a  history  of  human  actions,  how  is  it  possible  to  be 
blind  to  the  identity  of  that  of  the  Jews  with  all  the  others  ?  In  all  of  them  the  secret  object  of 
the  festival  was  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  the  sun,  or  of  that  higher  principle  of  which  the  sun  is 
the  emblem  and  shekinah. 

The  universal  dissemination  of  this  worship  is  worthy  of  the  most  attentive  consideration.  We 
have  already  seen  that  in  Hindostan  and  Britain  the  procreative  power  of  nature  was  celebrated 
on  the  day  of  the  vernal  equinox  by  Phallic  rites,  Huli  festivals,  May-poles,  and  April  fools,  and  is 
even  yet  continued  in  these  extreme  points  of  East  and  West — of  India  and  Britain — where  the 
young  girls  with  their  swains  little  suspect  the  meaning  of  their  innocent  gambols — gambols 
xvhich,  if  our  devotees  understood,  they  would  view  with  horror.  On  the  same  day,  in  Persia,  as  1 
have  just  observed,  the  triumph  of  the  Good  over  the  Evil  principle  took  place,  the  triumph  of  the 
victory  of  Light  over  Darkness,  of  Oromasdes  over  Ahriman.  At  the  same  time  in  Egypt, 
Phrygia,  Syria,  were  celebrated  the  deaths  and  resurrections  of  Osiris,  Atys,  Adonis.  In  Palestine, 
again,  we  find  on  the  same  day  the  Jews  celebrating  their  Passover,  the  passage  of  the  equinox 
from  the  sign  of  the  Bull  to  that  of  the  Ram,  or  of  the  Sun  from  the  inferior  to  the  superior 
hemisphere  $  and,  to  conclude  all,  on  this  day  we  Christians  of  Europe  still  continue  to  celebrate 
the  victory  of  the  God  Sol,  known  to  all  the  nations  above  enumerated  by  his  different  names — by 
us,  "  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world"— on  Easter  Sunday  having 
risen  to  life  and  immortality,  triumphing  over  the  powers  of  hell  and  of  darkness. 

4.  Although  the  identity  (not  the  similarity  merely)  of  the  modern  systems  of  Christianity  and 
the  systems  of  the  ancient  Persians,  and  other  worshipers  of  the  God  Sol,  must  be  admitted,  and 
indeed  cannot  be  denied  $  yet  many  persons  may  have  a  difficulty  in  forming  au  idea  how  or  by 
what  steps  the  two  systems  became  amalgamated  or  consolidated  ;  so  as  either  to  form  an  ima- 
ginary human  personage  in  one  case,  or  in  another  case  to  attach  themselves  to  the  character  of  a 
real  human  being,  or  a  divine  person  who  appeared  on  earth  in  the  shape  of  a  human  being*  It  is 
very  certaiu  that  the  same  circumstances  which  took  place  with  respect  to  the  Christian  religion, 
took  place  in  the  religions  of  Bacchus,  Hercules,  &c.,  in  former  times.  Histories  of  these  persons 
with  miracles,  relics,  circumstances  of  locality,  suitable  to  them,  were  as  common,  as  well  authen- 
ticated^ and  as  much  believed  by  the  devotees,  as  were  those  relating  to  Jesus  Christ,  And  where 
can  be  the  difficulty  of  conceiving,  that  that  should  happen  again,  which  we  know  from  experience 
has  happened  before  ?  To  this  it  may  be  replied,  that  though  it  may  be  believed  to  have  taken 
place,  yet  the  means  by  which  it  has  been  effected  are  not  so  apparent.  No  person  can  be  very 
much  surprised  that  the  modus  operandi  should  not  be  very  apparent,  who  gives  due  attention  to 
the  indisputable  fact,  that  the  priests,  with  all  the  powers  on  earth  at  their  disposal,  have  been 


OEd.  Jud,  Dissertation  *m  the  Paschal  Lamb.  *  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  260,  38.9, 446,  584,  718, 


BOOK  II*    CHAPTER  III.    SECTION  4.  107 

employed  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  in  garbling,  forging,  and  suppressing  evidence,  to  prevent  this 
modus  operandi  from  being  discoverable :  but,  notwithstanding  all  their  efforts,  a  reference  to 
some  of  the  facts  which  have  been  detailed  in  this  work  will  in  a  great  measure  remove  the  diffi- 
culty. Until  the  time  of  Luther  and  the  Protestants,  tradition  was  the  grand  support,  and  indeed 
the  most  powerful  of  all  the  engines  used  for  the  raising  of  the  Romish  Christian  edifice.  This 
engine  was  discarded  by  the  Reformers,  because  their  object  was  to  take  down  part  of  the  building, 
not  to  increase  it  5  and  the  only  difficulty  was,  to  know  where  to  stop — to  know  how  much  or 
how  little  was  to  be  removed  without  endangering  the  whole  edifice.  It  was  evident  that  if  they 
allowed  the  powerful  engine  tradition  to  remain,  that  edifice  was  impregnable.  The  Romish 
priests  were  well  aware  of  the  importance  of  their  engine,  and  therefore  exerted  all  their  ingenuity 
to  protect  it :  and  for  this  purpose  they  found  it  expedient  to  give  up  some  part  of  its  power  to 
secure  the  remainder.  It  is  evident  that  nothing  can  be  more  liable  to  abuse  than  tradition.  The 
tradition  which  the  Jesuit  of  the  present  day  will  describe  as  the  tradition  of  the  church,  is  very 
different  indeed  from  the  tradition  which  was  in  reality  used  in  the  early  ages  of  darkness.  Every 
idle  rumour  circulated  by  ignorance  and  credulity  became  tradition,  if  it  happened  to  suit  the  views 
of  the  priests.  The  frightened  rabble,  genteel  and  ungenteel,  always  timid  in  proportion  to  its 
ignorance,  had  not  the  most  distant  idea  of  any  thing  like  biblical  criticism.  In  order  to  secure 
its  salvation,  this  rabble  was  only  anxious  to  believe  enough.  It  might  believe  too  little,  it  could 
not  believe  too  much.  This  cause  operated  in  the  ancient  religions,  as  much  as  in  the  modern. 
Dr.  Hyde  x  justly  observes,  that  the  ancients,  always  fearful  of  believing  too  little,  kept  constantly 
increasing  their  rites  and  ceremonies  from  surrounding  nations.  "  Existimando  melius  esse 
"  religione  su£  abundare,  potius  quam  in  aliqua*  ejus  parte  deficire  sic  enirn  erat  eorum  mos,  nova 
"  quaevis  amplecti,  eaque  veteribus  accumulare."  This  was  exactly  the  case  with  the  Christians. 
This  cause  is  extremely  powerful,  and  is  the  more  dangerous  because  its  power  is  not  easily 
perceiveable.  This  cause  continues  to  operate  as  really  as  it  ever  did  in  former  times,  and  exactly 
in  proportion  to  the  ignorance  of  the  people.  And  it  is  evident  that  it  \vill  continue  to  operate  so 
long  as  belief  or  faith  is  held  to  be  a  merit :  for,  if  belief  be  meritorious,  unquestionably  the  more 
a  man  believes,  the  more  he  merits ;  therefore  to  make  salvation  secure,  it  is  wise  to  believe  as 
much  as  possible— to  believe  every  thing.  If  a  person  believe  every  thing,  he  must  believe  the 
the  truth— which  can  only  be  a  part  of  every  thing — of  the  whole. 

Notwithstanding  the  strenuous  exertions  of  the  priests,  for  the  last  two  thousand  years,  to 
eradicate  every  trace  of  the  means  by  which  their  various  doctrines,  rites,  and  ceremonies,  have 
been  established ;  yet  they  have  not  entirely  succeeded.  Circumstances,  apparently  trifling  in 
themselves,  may  sometimes  be  met  with  which  have  escaped  their  vigilance,  and  which  will 
enable  the  impartial  and  unprejudiced  inquirer  to  form  a  pretty  correct  idea  how  such  of  them, 
as  he  cannot  discover  or  exactly  point  out  the  origin  of,  may  have  been  produced.  Remains  of 
the  ancient  superstitions  may  occasionally  be  observed,  on  which  most  of  the  rites,  ceremonies, 
and  doctrines,  have  been  founded ;  and  the  priests  seem  to  have  overlooked  the  circumstance, 
that  the  ordinances  themselves  for  the  destruction  of  others  of  them,  if  remaining,  would  serve 
to  prove  the  fact  of  their  previous  existence,  in  a  way  fully  as  satisfactory  as  if  we  had  them  now 
before  us. 

The  adoration  by  the  ancients  of  the  celestial  bodies,  and  in  its  turn  of  the  constellation  or 
sign  of  the*  Zodiac,  Aries,  or  the  Ram,  is  so  well  known  that  it  is  »6edle&s  to  enlarge  upon  it. 
M.  Dupuis,  in  his  treatise,  Sur  tous  les  Cultes,  has  settled  this  matter.  The  manner  in  which 
this  constellation  came  to  be  personified,  or  applied  to  the  person  of  Jesus,  may,  at  first,  be 


De  Rel.  Vet.  Pers,  Cap.  vii.  p.  189. 


108  LAMB   OF   GOD. 

difficult  to  conceive.  Like  almost  every  thing  connected  with  religion,  this  effect  was  not  pro- 
duced by  design,  but  by  accident :  that  is,  by  the  favourable  combination  of  unforeseen  circum- 
stances* 

This  constellation  was  called  the  Lamb  of  God.  He  was  also  called  the  Saviour,  and  was 
said  to  save  mankind  from  their  sins.  He  was  always  honoured  with  the  appellation  of  Dominus 
or  Lord.  He  was  called  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world*  The  devotees 
addressing  him  in  their  litany,  constantly  repeated  the  words,  O  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  aivay 
the  sins  of  the  world,  have  mercy  upon  us.  Grant  us  thy  peace. T 

The  following  passage  of  Frickius  de  Dmidis  will  prove  that  "  the  Lamb  that  taketh  away 
"  the  sins  of  the  world"  might  very  well  be  prophesied  of  by  the  Sibyls  before  the  time  of  Christ. 
It  will  also  complete  the  proof  that  the  Jesus  of  the  Roman  Church  was  no  philosopher  of  Samaria 
in  the  time  of  Tiberius.  It  proves  also  that  our  Litany  is  part  of  the  ancient  Pagan  ritual,  and  as 
such  gives  it  a  new  degree  of  interest. 

"Rena  dico  adniirabilem,  omni  tarnen  fide  dignam,  quani  faciunt  antiquissima  Carnuten&is 
"  ecclesise  monumenta  fastique,  ac  qui  ex  illis  erutum  tanti  prodigii  memoriam  typis  vulgarunt 
"  probalissimi  scriptores  5  et  in  recentioribus  quidem  P.  FRANC.  POYRAEUS,  acii  judicio  vir, 
"integritate  singular!,  ac  teneia  in  Deiparam  pietate  insignia,  qui  triplicem  coronam,  quae  hodie 
"  est  omnium  in  manibus,  pio  sane  et  religiose  artificio  excellentissiaioe,  potculissim®,  optima? 
"  matri  contexuit. 

(e  Itaque  sic  a  majoribus  acceptum  referunt :  signum  Carnutensis  virginis,  quod  hodieque  visitur, 
"  quondam ,  excisum  esse  in  sacra  Carnutum  sylva,  et  Prisci  regis,  procerumque  illius  gentis 
"  unanimi  consensu  per  Druidum  manus,  sanctiore  quodam  in  antro  collocatum,  ac  consecratum 
"  virgini  pariturce :  sive  id  mysterium  ex  oraculis  Sibyllinis  aut  propheticis  intellexerunt,  sive 
"  acceperunt  divinitus,  extraordinarily  revelatione.  Moriens  Priscus  coronas  ac  ditionis  suss 
"  Carnutensis  heredem  scripsit  virginem  parituram.  Quae  autem  occasio  novae  illi  religione  fecerit 
"  initium,  ita  narratur  : 

"  Quum  inter  Gallos  magna  quaedam  exorta  esset  dissensio,  nullaque  interposita  magistratuum 
"  auctoritate  graves  irae  sedarentur,  ac  jam  eo  ventum  esset,  ut  otnnia  publicis  contentionibus  labe- 
"  factata  pessum  ruerent,  cuipiam  viro  gravi,  ad  restinguendum  tantum  incendium,  si  quis  alius, 
"  idoneo,  imago  co3litus  est  oblata,  cujus  in  basi  hsec  inscripta  verba :  AGNUS  DEI,  aui  TOLLIS 
"  FECCATA  MUNDI,  MISERERE  NOBis.  Hanc  ille  imaginem  quuin  Gallis,  qui  in  unum  convenerant, 
"  palam  ostendisset,  pauca,  qusc  sibi  monstrante  Deo,  revelata  fuerant,  prsefatus,  sic  dercpentfc  om- 
**  nium  animos  affecit  permovitque,  nemo  ut  abeunduni  sibi  domum  putaret,  priusquam  rcconci- 
"  liata  pax  esset.  Ergo  alii  alios  arete  complexi,  sibi  invicem,  quiquid  peccatum  erat,  condona- 
"  runt.  Porro  ad  perennem  tam  fortunatae  reconciliationis  memoriam,  PARITURJE  VIRGINIS 
"  IMAGINEM  EXPRESSERUNT,  quam  summo  deinceps  honore  sunt  prosequuti,  Hacc  fer^  RIGOR- 
66  DIITS."  l 

Of  this  remarkable  passage,  I  submit  the  following  translation  : 

"  I  will  relate  an  extraordinary  circumstance,  which,  however,  is  worthy  of  all  credit,  on  the 
authority  of  the  most  ancient  monuments  and  annals  of  the  church  of  the  Carnutes,  and  of  the 
most  approved  writers,  who  have  thence  derived  and  printed  the  records  of  so  great  a  prodigy » 
Among  the  more  modern  of  these  authors  is  P,  Francis  Poyrseus,  a  man  of  acute  judgment,  of 
singular  integrity,  and  remarkable  for  his  affectionate  piety  towards  the  Mother  of  God  5  who,  by 


1  Oa  an  ancient  medal  of  the  Phoenicians  brought  by  Dr.  Clarke  from  Citium,  noticed  iu  Vol.  I.  p,  224,  he  it, 
described  with  tlie  cross  and  the  rotary,  which  shew  that  they  were  both  used  in  his  worship. 
*  Frickius  de  Druidis,  Cap.  x.  pp.  99,  100, 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  III.  SECTION  4.  ]Q9 

a  pious  and  ingenious  artifice  wove  the  triple  crown  which  is  in  every  body's  hands,  for  the  most 
excellent,  most  powerful,  and  best  of  mothers. 

"  It  is  thus  related,  as  handed  down  from  antiquity— that  an  image  of  the  Carnutensian  Virgin, 
which  is  seen  to  this  day,  was  formerly  carved  in  the  sacred  grave  of  the  Carnutes,  and,  with  the 
unanimous  consent  of  king  Priscus  and  the  nobles  of  that  nation,  was  placed,  by  the  hands  of  the 
Druids,  in  a  certain  holy  cavern,  and  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  of  the  Conception.  This  mystery 
they  either  learned  from  the  Sibylline  or  piophetic  oracles,  or  they  received  it  by  an  extraordi- 
nary revelation  from  heaven.  When  Priscus  was  dying,  he  named  the  Virgin  of  the  Conception 
the  heiress  of  the  crown  and  dominion  of  the  Cariiutes,  But  the  event  which  gave  rise  to  the  new 
worship  is  thus  narrated : 

"  When  a  great  dissension  had  arisen  among  the  Gauls,  and  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  had 
not  interposed  to  quell  the  excitement,  and  it  had  arrived  at  such  a  height  that  every  thing  was 
falling  into  confusion  through  the  public  contentions*  an  image  was  sent  down  from  heaven,  to  a 
certain  grave  personage,  who  was  more  likely  than  any  other  person  to  extinguish  such  a  flame- 
on  the  base  of  which  were  inscribed  these  words  :  "  O  LAMB  OF  GOD,  THAT  TAKEST  AWAY  THK 
<e  SINS  OF  THE  WORLD  !  HAVE  MERCY  UPON  us/'  When  he  had  publicly  shewn  this  image  to  the 
assembled  Gauls,  and  had  repeated  a  few  words  which  had  been  revealed  to  him  by  God  himself, 
he  so  instantly  affected  and  moved  the  minds  of  all,  that  no  one  thought  of  returning  home  till 
peace  was  restored.  Each,  therefoie,  embracing  the  rest,  they  interchanged  forgiveness  of  all 
injuries.  Moreover,  in  order  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  so  happy  a  reconciliation,  they  made  an 
Image  of  the  Virgin  of  the  Conception,  to  which  they  thenceforth  paid  the  highest  honour. — Such 
nearly  is  the  account  of  Rigordius," 

Rigord,  quoted  above,  by  Frickius,  and  whom  L'Escalopier  also  quotes,  mentions,  that  among 
the  Gauls,  and  especially  in  Chartres,  there  existed,  a  hundred  years  (N.  B.)  BEFORE  the  birth  of 
our  Saviour,  the  prophetic  tradition  of  a  Virgin  that  was  to  bear  a  son — VIRGO  PARiTURA.1  He 
also  observes,  that  the  Egyptians  held  the  same  persuasion,  "  and  not  only  worshiped  such  a 
**  future  virgin  mother,  prior  to  the  birth  of  our  Saviour,  but  exhibited  the  effigy  of  her  son  lying 
tfff  in  the  manger,  in  the  manner  the  infant  Jesus  was  afterwards  laid  in  the  cave  at  Bethlehem. 2 
"  Deinceps  Egyptii  PARITURAM  VIRGINEM  magno  in  honore  habuerunt ;  quin  soliti  sunt  puerum 
"  effingerc  jacentem  in  prsesepe,  quali  POSTEA  in  Bethlehemetic£  spelunc&  natus  est.  For  this 
ee  passage  L'Escalopier  quotes  a  saint  of  the  church,  Ephiphanius;  I  say  quotes,  because  his  own 
"  authority  is  very  slender."3  The  sacrifice  of  the  Agni  or  the  Yagni  sacrifice  of  India  already 
described,  was  allusive  to  the  Lamb  of  Isaiah  and  of  Gaul, 

I  think  I  may  now  assume  that  I  cannot  be  accused  of  very  gross  credulity  in  believing,  that  the 
son  of  the  Virgin  of  Isaiah,  and  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  were  the 
same — both  existing  long  before  the  time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth* 

When  I  reflect  on  the  many  circumstances,  new  and  extremely  curious  as.  they  appear  to  me, 
which  I  have  observed,  I  am  tempted  to  ask,  Can  it  really  be  that  I  have  a  clearer  sight  than 
others,  which  causes  me  to  see  what  others  overlook?  If  this  be  true,  to  an  absence  of  prejudice 
only  can  it  be  attributed.  Such  is  the  sensation  I  experience  when  I  observe  such  circumstances 
as  the  following  5  I  cannot  shut  my  eyes  to  them :  in  every  part  of  Italy  I  observe  pictures  of  the 
holy  family,  of  extreme  antiquity,  the  grounds  of  them  often  of  gold.  Of  course  they  are  said  to 
be  of  a  date  subsequent  to  the  time  of  Christ  5  but  when  I  see  them  inscribed  with  the  words  Deo 


L'Escaloperius,  cte  Theologifi  veterum  Gallorum,  Cap.  x.  a  As  in  Luke  ii.  7. 

Cleland's  attempt  to  retrieve  Celtic  Literature,  pp,  102, 103,  1766,  8vo.    See  Vol,  L  pp.  169—171. 


110  3LAMB   OF  GOD. 

Soli,  I  cannot  help  doubting.  These  pictures  represent  the  mother  seated  with  a  child  on  her 
knee,  and  a  little  boy  standing  close  by  her  side.  The  lamb  is  generally  seen  in  the  picture. 
This  is  the  very  description  of  what  Mr,  Payne  Knight  calls  Isis  and  her  offspring,  who  were  wor- 
shiped in  Russia  by  the  ancient  Muscovites.  And  who  was  her  offspring  but  Horus  ?  He  adds, 
they  have  in  other  pictures  the  symbol  of  a  golden  heifer,  which  is  a  symbol  of  the  same  person.  l 
After  reading  the  account  of  the  Isis  in  every  part  of  the  North  of  France  and  England,  of  the 
Virgo  Paritura,  of  the  Lamb  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  I  cannot  doubt  that  this  is 
the  same  mythos  in  honour  of  the  Beeve,  which  followed  two  thousand  years  after,  in  honour  of 
the  Lamb — a  renewal  of  the  same  mythos  for  every  new  bign  of  the  zodiac.  Sometimes  it  was 
a  Bull,  then  a  Ram,  and  lastly,  two  Fishes,  tied  together  by  the  tails  on  Popish  monuments. 

The  first  symptom  of  the  worship  of  the  lamb  among  the  Israelites  is  to  be  found  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  Ram  in  the  place  of  Isaac,  by  Abraham,  for  a  sacrifice.  When  Joseph  had  become 
prime  minister  of  Egypt,  he  married  Asenath,  a  daughter  of  the  priest  of  On  or  Heliopolis,  the 
capital  of  Goshen,  which  word  Goshen,  Mr.  Bryant  states,  means  the  house  of  the  sun.  Lucian2 
states,  that  the  persons  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  that  temple  sacrificed  a  sacred  sheep,  a 
symbol  of  the  animal  of  the  first  sign,  or  of  the  equinoctial  sign,  which  they  ate  as  the  Israelites 
ate  their  Passover.3  On  the  ancient  monuments  of  Mithra,  in  the  different  collections,  we  see  the 
Bull,  whose  blood  is  shed  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  The  Bull  is  now  succeeded  by  the 
Ram,  the  lamb  without  blemish,  by  whose  blood  the  soul  is  puiified  from  sin.  On  an  ancient 
Christian  monument  the  lamb  is  seen  slain  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  the  blood  of  which  is  caught  in 
a  cup» 4  This  is  a  copy  of  the  rite  described  in  the  celebrated  Mithraitic  monument  of  slaying  the 
bull,5 

Some  of  the  coins  of  Gallienus  are  stamped  with  the  figure  of  a  Lamb  and  the  legend  Jovi 
Servatori.    And  in  another  ancient  medal  is  seen  the  legend  Ammoni  Servatori.6 

The  Egyptian  God  Jupiter,  with  the  horns  of  a  ram,  the  Ammon,  is  but  the  sun  at  the  equinox, 
which  is  confirmed  by  Martianus  Capella,  who  maintains,  in  his  hymn  to  the  sun,  that  the  God 
lamb  or  ram  is  but  the  sun.  Then  if  Christ  be  the  sun,  Christ,  in  the  moment  of  his  triumph  and 
reparation,  ought  to  be  as  the  sun,  figured  by  the  symbolical  lamb.  This  symbolical  sign  is  essen- 
tial to  his  triumph  over  the  prince  of  darkness  and  the  works  of  the  serpent.  But,  hi  effect,  he 
has  this  form.  He  is  designated  in  the  Scriptuies  by  the  mystical  name  of  the  Lamb,  the 
Saviour.  His  mysteries  are  those  of  the  lamb  without  fault  5  nature  is  restored  by  the  blood 
of  the  lamb.  Every  where  the  blood  of  the  lamb,  which  takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  is 
presented  to  us.  When  the  priest  pre&ents  to  the  initiated  the  mystic  bread  which  contains  the 
Christ,  he  says,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world/*  He  calls 
it  "  the  Lamb"  which  has  been  et  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world/' 7  Every  part  of  the 
Apocalypse  turns  upon  the  triumph  of  the  Lamb  over  the  powers  of  hell  and  darkness.  The 
symbolical  type  of  the  sun,  the  redeemer,  or  of  the  first  sign  in  which  the  sun  had  his  exaltation 
and  completed  his  victory  over  the  powers  of  darkness,  has  been  carefully  preserved  in  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Christians,  so  that  to  name  Christ  or  the  Lamb  is  the  same  thing  as  to  name  the 
Redeemer. 


1  Class.  Jouin.  Vol.  XXVI.  p.  269.  *  De  Dea  Syria,  p  913.  3  Dupuis,  Tome  II.  pp.  250,  4to. 

1  Cdsalius  de  Veterib.  Christ,  Ritib.  Cap.  h.  p.  4,  or  Cap,  v.  p.  48. 

*  St.  Paulin,  Bishop  of  Nola,  Epist.  12  ad  Sulpit.  Severum,  says,  Sub  cmce  sanguined  niveo  stat  Christus  in  agno. 

6  Dupuis,  Tome  III,  p.  325,  4to. 

7  Rev,  xiii  8.    The  Apocalypse  is  proved  to  be  of  very  great  antiquity  by  its  having  fixed  the  year  to  only  360  days. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  4.  I]] 

Instead  of  the  Crucifix,  Christ  is  often  represented  over  the  altars  on  the  continent  as  a  Lamb* 
There  is  one  at  Cologne, 

It  follows,  then,  that  the  mysteries  of  Christ  are  the  mysteries  of  the  Lamb,  and  that  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Lamb  are  mysteries  of  the  same  nature  as  those  of  the  Mithraitic  Bull,  to  which  they 
succeeded  by  the  effect  of  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  which  substituted  the  slain  lamJ)  for  the 
slain  bull  The  Christian  mysteries  of  the  lamb  are  proved  to  be  taken  from  the  mysteries  of 
Mithra,  of  the  Persians,  by  the  circumstance  that  the  Persians  alone  have  the  lamb  for  the  symbol 
of  the  equinoctial  sign  :  the  other  nations  have  the  full  grown  Ram. 

M.  Dnpuis  observes,  that  the  lamb  was  a  symbol  or  mark  of  initiation  into  the  Christian  mys- 
teries, a  sort  of  proof  of  admission  into  the  societies  of  the  initiated  of  the  lamb,  like  the  private 
sign  of  the  free-masons.  From  this  came  the  custom,  in  the  primitive  church,  of  giving  to  the 
newly- initiated  or  newly- baptized,  the  seal  of  the  Lamb,  or  an  impression  in  wax,  representing 
the  Lamb. 

Christians  even  now  make  their  children  carry  about  their  necks  a  symbolical  image  of  the  Lamb, 
called  an  Agnus  Dei. 

There  are  not  many  circumstances  more  striking  than  that  of  Jesus  Christ  being  originally 
worshiped  under  the  form  of  a  Lamb— the  actual  lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.  "Though  many  churches  in  this  age  were  adorned  with  the  images  of  saints  and  martyrs, 
"  there  do  not  appear  to  be  many  of  Christ.  These  are  said  to  have  been  introduced  by  the  Cap- 
u  padocians ;  and  the  first  of  these  were  only  symbolical  ones,  being  made  in  the  form  of  a  Lamb. 
"  One  of  this  kind  Epiphanius  found  in  the  year  389,  and  he  was  so  provoked  at  it  that  he  tore  it. 
"  It  was  not  till  the  council  of  Constantinople,  called  In  Trullo,  held  so  late  as  the  year  707,  that 
"  pictures  of  Christ  were  ordered  to  be  drawn  in  the  form  of  men."  * 

Priestley  is  perfectly  right :  the  custom  of  exposing  the  symbolical  Lamb  to  the  veneration  of 
the  people  continued  to  the  year  (508,  when  Agathon  was  pope,  and  Constantine  Pogonat  was 
emperor.  It  was  ordained,  in  the  sixth  Synod  of  Constantinople,*  that,  in  the  place  of  the 
figuie  of  a  lamb,  the  symbol  used  to  that  time,  the  figure  of  a  man  nailed  to  a  cross  should  in 
future  be  used,  which  was  confirmed  by  Adrian  the  First.  But  the  Pope  Adrian  the  First,  in  the 
seventh  council,  in  his  epistle  to  Tarasius,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  had  approved  the  represen- 
tation of  Christ  under  the  form  of  the  Lamb  and  adopted  it. 3 

In  the  decree  of  the  council  of  Constantinople  quoted  above,  the  knowledge  of  a  most  important 
fact  is  preserved  to  us  by  the  decree  passed  for  the  express  purpose  of  concealing  it.  If  instead 
of  this  formal  decree,  forbidding  the  votaries  in  future  to  represent  Christ  as  a  Lamb,  the  practice 
had  been  merely  discouraged  by  verbal  communications,  through  the  medium  of  the  corresponding 
societies  of  monks,  it  would  have  been  as  certainly  abolished,  and  this  curious  link  connecting  the 
ancient  and  modern  superstitions  would  never  have  been  discovered.  It  would  have  been  irre- 
trievably lost. 

The  following  are  the  words  of  the  decree,  which  I  obtained  in  the  Vatican  Library,  that  mighty 
treasury  of  secret  learning.4 

In  the  Roma  Sotterranea  of  Antonio  Bosio,5  Dell'  Imagine  di  Christo  in  Figura  di  Agnello— "  In 


1  Priestley's  Hist.  Corr,  Vol.  I.  p.  339 ;  Seuer,  A,  D.  707,  9  Can.  82. 

3  Dupuis,  sur  tons  les  Cultes,  Tome  III.  p.  61,  4to. 

*  The  French  supposed  that  they  examined  it.    Silly  fellows !    The  church  took  care  that  they  should  find  as  little 
of  secret  learning  in  the  Vatican  as  they  found  of  real  jewels  at  Loretto. 

4  Lib.  iv,  Cap.  xxix. 


112  GENTILE   CRUCIFIXION. 

"  quibusdam  sanctorum  imaginum  picturis  agnus  exprimitur,  &C.1  Nos  igitur  veteres  figuras 
"  atque  umbras,  ut  veritatis  notas,  et  signa  ecclesias  tradita,  compleetentes,  gratiam,  et  veritatem 
"  anteponimus,  quam  ut  plenitudinem  legis  accepinius.  Itaque  id  quod  perfectum  eat,  in  picturis 
"  etiam  omnium  oculis  subjiciamus,  agnum  ilium  qui  mundi  peccatuui  tollit,  Christum  Deum 
"  nostrum,  loco  veteris  Agni,  ImmanS,  form£  posthac  exprimendum  decrevimus,"  &c.  See 
Canon  83. 2  From  this  decree  the  identity  of  the  worship  of  the  celestial  lamb  and  the  Romish 
Jesus  is  certified  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt,  and  the  mode  by  which  the  ancient  super- 
stitions were  applied  to  an  imaginary  personage  or  to  a  real  human  being,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  is 
satisfactorily  shewn.  Nothing  can  more  clearly  prove  the  general  practice  than  the  order  of  a 
general  council  to  regulate  it. 

It  requires  no  very  great  exertion  of  the  imagination  to  form  an  idea  in  what  manner  the 
ignorant  and  fanatical  devotees,  when  they  applied  the  worship  of  the  Lamb  that  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world  to  the  man  Jesus,  should  seize  hold  of  and  apply  to  him  every  doctrine,  rite, 
or  ceremony,  which  the  idle  traditions  of  the  vulgar  attributed  to  the  Lamb  in  different  countries 
where  they  happened  to  prevail.  The  God  Sol,  Mithra,  and  lao,  being  the  same  as  the  Lamb  of 
God,  it  seems  natural  enough  that  the  ceremonies,  &c.,  of  the  being  passing  under  those  names 
bhould  be  adopted  by  his  followers.  Hence  it  is  that  we  find  them  all  mixed  together  in  the 
worship  of  Jesus.  And,  as  the  worship  under  the  name  of  Mithra  prevailed  most  in  the  different 
Western  countries  of  the  world,  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  peculiar  doctrines  and  ceremonies 
should  most  prevail  in  the  new  religion. 

We  have  seen  that  Mr.  Bryant,  Dupuis,  and  others,  have  shewn  that  the  worship  of  the 
constellation  of  Aries  was  the  worship  of  the  Sun  in  his  passage  through  that  sign,  and  this 
connects  with  the  worship  of  the  Lamb  the  different  rites  which  were  used  by  different  nations  in 
the  worship  of  the  God  Sol — the  Dominus  Sol — under  the  different  names  of  Hercules,  Bacchus, 
Mithra,  Adonis,  &c.,  &c.,  their  baptisms,  oblations  of  bread  and  water,  their  births,  deaths,  resur- 
rections after  three  days,  and  triumphs  over  the  poweis  of  hell  and  of  darkness.  In  all  this  can  a 
person  be  so  blind  as  not  to  see  the  history  of  the  God  Ia«>,  IHS,  X?j<n*£5  the  a  and  a>— the 
incarnate  God — the  Lamb  of  God  sacrificed  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world  ?  As  might  be 
expected,  we  find  this  Saviour  originally  described  and  adored  under  the  form  of  a  Lamb.  In 
many  places  of  Italy,  particularly  at  Florence,  he  is  described  as  a  Lamb,  with  the  cross  held  by 
his  fore- leg.  But,  in  most  places,  these  representations  have  been  destroyed  in  compliance  with 
the  bulls  or  decrees  above-named,  which  unwittingly  let  us  into  the  secret,  which,  without  them, 
we  might  have  guessed  at,  but  could  not  have  certainly  known. 

Over  the  high  altar  of  the  cathedral  at  Mayence,  on  the  Rhine,  is  a  golden  lamb,  as  large  a& 
life,  couchant,  upon  a  book  sealed  with  seven  seals,  and  surrounded  with  a  glory.  Over  the  high 
altar  of  the  cathedral  of  Bon,  also,  there  is  a  Lamb  in  silver,  as  large  as  life,,  couchant  on  a  book, 
sealed  with  seven  seals,  and  surrounded  with  a  golden  .glory.  In  the  gateway  of  the  Middle 
Temple  in  London  may  be  seen  one  of  these  Lambs  ;  he  holds  a  cross  with  his  fore-leg,  and  has 
the  sun  for  his  head,  with  a  lamb's  face.  This  is  a  relic  of  the  ancient  Knights  Templars*  In 
the  late  repairs  of  their  building  the  lawyers  have  shewn  much  good  taste  in  not  destroying  it. 
I  rejoice  that  such  of  my  countrymen  as  cannot  go  abroad,  may  sec  this  remnant  of  the  ancient 
superstition  at  home.  I  advise  the  Masonic  Templars  to  add  this  to  their  eight-point  red  cross. 

5.  I  will  now  shew  my  reader  that  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  is,  like  all  the  remainder  of  the 
Romish  mythos,  a  close  copy  from  Paganism. 


S,  lo  Damasc.  Orat  3,  de  Iriiag.  *  Baron,  Annal.  Tom,  VJIL  ann.  680,  692. 


BOOK    II.    CHAPTER   III.   SECTION   5.  JJ3 

ee  Plato  died  about  348  before  our  sera.  The  beginning  of  John's  Gospel  is  evidently  Platonic 
"  This  philosopher  was  himself  believed  to  have  been  born  of  a  pure  virgin  j  and  in  his  writings 
ee  had  drawn  up  the  imaginary  character  of  a  DIVINE  MAN,  whose  ideal  picture  he  completed  by 
"  the  supposition  that  such  a  man  would  be  crucified"  l  —  a  supposition  under  which  the  secret 
mythos  was  evidently  concealed,  but  which  would  be  clearly  understood  by  the  initiated.  Having 
penetrated  into  the  mysteries,  we  understand  it. 

Prometheus  is  said  to  have  been  nailed  up  with  arms  extended,  near  the  Caspian  Straits,  on 
Caucasus.  The  history  of  Prometheus  on  the  cathedral  of  Bourdeaux  here  receives  its  explanation. 
Here  the  history  of  the  Garuda,  of  the  crucified  Prometheus,  in  the  Christian  church,  is  accounted 
for  :  proved  by  the  name  of  the  river  Garumna,  in  the  department  of  the  same  ancient  name,  not 
to  have  been  so  called  from  any  superstition  of  the  middle  ages.  In  our  versions  of  the  tragedy 
of  ^Eschylus,  Prometheus  is  always  fraudulently  said  to  be  Bound.  It  is  called  Prometheus  vinctus, 
He  was  nailed  up  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  with  hammer  and  nails.  The  object  of  this  impudent  fraud 
need  not  be  pointed  out.  In  this  case  Protestants  and  Papists  are  all  alike. 

"  The  Prometheus  Bound  of  JEschylus  was  acted  as  a  tragedy  in  Athens,  500  years  before  the 
"  Christian  aera.  The  plot  or  fable  of  the  drama,  being  then  confessedly  derived  from  the  univer- 
"  sally  recognized  type  of  an  infinitely  remote  antiquity;  yet  presenting  not  one  or  two,  but 
"  innumerable  coincidences  with  the  Christian  tragedy  5  not  only  the  more  prominent  situations, 
"  but  the  very  sentiments,  and  often  the  words  of  the  two  heroes  are  precisely  the  same/'  "  Pro- 
"  metheus  made  the  first  man  and  woman  out  of  clay"  —  "  was  a  God."  He  "  exposed  himself 
"  to  the  wrath  of  God,  incurred  by  him  in  his  zeal  to  save  mankind/'2  He  was  crucified  on  a 
rock,  instead  of  a  beam  of  timber, 

JSsculapius  was  the  sou  of  Coronis.  This  Coronis  was  the  first  of  the  Jewish  Sephiroth, 
Corona,  and  answered  to  the  Brahm-Maia  of  the  Brahmins.  jEsculapius  was  Asclo-ops,  <n|/,  OTTOS, 
Logos,  voice  —  as  fire  and  solar  emanation,  described  by  the  numeral  letters,  &/or:600.  Thus  j 
"j—  500,  ^=30,  y^i/O—  600.  He  was  the  voice  of  the  solar  cycle,  or  the  voice  of  the  mundane 
fire  ;  for  cycle  and  mundane,  I  think,  are  convertible  terms.  Or,  judging  from  the  serpent  with 
which  this  Saviour  God  is  always  accompanied,  I  should  say,  the  serpent  of  the  solar  cycfe—  As-clo- 


j-Esculapius  is  always  conjoined  with  the  serpent  \  and  generally  with  a  serpent  coiling  round 
something  —  en~cir  or  en-cycling,  something. 

The  serpent  not  only  tempted  Eve,  but  the  name  Heva  meant  serpent.  Apyotg  means  serpent  ; 
Argha,  the  emblem  of  the  female  generative  power,  and  Ag^a,  the  ship  in  which  the  germ  of 
animated  nature  was  saved. 

The  Serpent,  the  Eva,  the  Argha,  the  Ship  or  Nau,  the  Cycle,  the  X=600,  and  the  God,  are  all 
brought  very  near  together  if  they  be  not  identified* 

Once,  as  the  sacred  infant  she  surveyed, 
The  God  was  kindled  in  the  raving  maid  5 
And  thus  she  utter'd  her  prophetic  tale, 
Hail,  great  physician  of  the  world  I  all  hail. 
Hail,  mighty  infant,  who,  in  years  to  come, 
Shalt  heal  the  nations,  and  defraud  the  tomb  ! 
Swift  be  thy  growth,  thy  triumphs  unconfined, 
Make  kingdoms  thicker,  and  increase  mankind. 


*  Taylor's  Syntagma,  in  answer  to  J.  P.  S.  [Dr.  John  Pye  Smith?]  p.  95,  note.  *  Ibid.  pp.  97,  98,  and  note. 

VOL,   II. 


114  GENTILE    CRUCIFIXION. 

Thy  daring  art  shall  animate  the  dead, 
And  draw  the  thunder  on  thy  guilty  head  ; 
Then  shalt  thou  die,  but  from  the  dark  abode 
Shalt  lise  victorious,  and  be  twice  a  God.  l 

Mr.  R.  Taylor  has  stated,  that  he  thinks  the  healing  God2  was  related  to  the  Therapeute,  or 
Physicians  of  the  Soul,  as  they  have  been  called  —  as  the  name  meant.  And  most  certainly  there 
are  expressions  in  the  verses  of  Ovid  which  shew  a  reference  to  the  superstition  of  Virgil,  and  to 
the  Christian,  Promethean,  and  Hindoo  incarnations  and  regenerations. 

The  following  is  an  account  given  of  the  rites  of  Tammuz  or  of  Adonis,  or  of  the  Syrian  or 
Jewi&h  pK  adn  or  pin  aditn^  by  Julius  Firmicius  :  "  On  a  certain  night  (while  the  ceremony  of 
**  the  Adonia,  or  religious  rites  in  honour  of  Adonis  lasted)  an  image  was  laid  upon  a  bed,  and  be- 
"  wailed  in  doleful  ditties.  After  they  had  satiated  themselves  with  fictitious  lamentations,  light 
**  was  brought  in  :  then  the  mouths  of  all  the  mourners  were  anointed  by  the  priest,  upon  which 
"  he,  with  a  gentle  murmur,  whispered, 

"  Trust,  ye  saints,  youi  God  restored, 
**  Trust  ye,  in  your  risen  Loid  ; 
"  For  the  pains  \vliich  he  endured 
*  '  Our  salvation  have  proem  ed. 


(<  BOTCH  <yap  yptv  sit  woj/wy  ffwrypux* 

"  Literally,  *  Trust,  ye  communicants;  the  God  having  been  saved,  there  shall  be  to  us  out  of 
"  pains,  salvation/  "  Godwyn  renders  it,  "  Trust  ye  in  God,  for  out  of  pains,  salvation  is  come 
"  unto  us*"  4  Parkhurst5  gives  the  translation  from  Godwyn,  and  says,  "  I  find  myself  obliged  to 
"  refer  Tarnomz,  as  well  as  the  Greek  and  Roman  Hercules,  to  that  class  of  idols  which  were 
"  originally  designed  to  represent  the  promised  Saviour,  the  Desire  of  all  nations.  His  other  name 
"  Adonis,  is  almost  the  very  Hebrew  WTK  Aduni  or  Lord,  a  well-known  title  of  Christ." 

On  these  rites  of  Adonis  the  Editor  of  Calmet  says,6  "Now  these  rites  seem  to  be  precisely 
"  the  same  with  those  described  in  the  Orphic  Argonautica,  where  we  learn  that  these  awful 
w  meetings  began,  first  of  all,  by  an  oath  of  secrecy,  administered  to  all  who  were  to  be  initiated. 
u  Then  the  ceremonies  commenced  by  a  description  of  the  chaos  or  abyss,  and  the  confusion  atten- 
"  dant  upon  it  :  then  the  poet  describes  a  person,  as  a  man  of  justice,  and  mentions  the  orgies,  or 
"  funeral  lamentations,  on  account  of  this  just  person  ;  and  those  of  Arkite  Athene  (i.  e.  Divine 
"  Providence)  ;  these  were  celebrated  by  night.  In  these  mysteries,  after  the  attendants  had  for  a 
"  long  time  bewailed  the  death  of  this  just  person,  he  was  at  length  understood  to  be  restored  lo 
"  life,  to  have  experienced  a  resurrection  5  signified  by  the  readmission  of  light*  On  this  the 
"  priest  addressed  the  company,  saying,  *  Comfort  yourselves,  all  ye  who  have  been  partakers  of 
"  e  the  mysteries  of  the  Deity,  thus  preserved  :  for  we  shall  now  enjoy  some  respite  from  our 
"  c  labours  :*  to  which  were  added  these  words,  tf  I  have  escaped  a  sad  calamity,  and  my  lot  is 
"  6  greatly  mended/  The  people  answered  by  the  invocation  Io>  Manaipa  ! 
"  <  Hail  to  the  Dove  !  the  Restorer  of  Light  !'  " 


1  OVJD  by  Addison,  ap»  R.  Taylor's  Diegesis,  p.  148,  9  That  is,  the  Suli  Minerva  of  Bath. 

3  "  Hence  the  idol  Adorns  had  Ms  name"— Parkhurst,  in  voce  p  dn,  p.  141.  4  R.  Taylor's  Diegesis,  p.  163, 

*  In  voce  ton  tm*t  p.  789.  6  Fragment,  CCCXVIL  pp.  21,  22. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  HI.     SECTION  5.  115 

Here,  I  think,  from  this  little  scrap,  which  has  escaped  from  the  Argonautic  mysteries,  we  see 
enough  to  raise  a  probability  that  in  them  were  acted  over,  or  celebrated,  the  whole  of  the  Mosaic 
and  Christian  mythoses — the  whole  of  what  we  have  found  mixed  together  in  the  rites  of  the 
Brahmins  of  South  India,  as  given  by  the  Jesuits,  the  mythos  of  Moses,  and  of  the  person  treated 
on  by  the  Erythraean  Sibyl.  It  appears  that  these  rites  were  celebrated  in  the  autumn,  to  which 
they  must,  of  course,  have  been  removed  by  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes.  We  have  seen  be- 
fore, Vol.  I.  pp.  822 — 824,  that  it  was  admitted  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  who  had  been  himself 
initiated,  that  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis  were  taken  from  the  books  of  Moses.  An  interesting  ac- 
count of  the  tomb  of  Jesus,  as  it  now  is  at  Jerusalem,  may  be  seen  in  the  travels  of  Dr.  Clarke. 
But  in  the  writings  of  some  traveller,  but  by  whom  I  have  now  forgotten,  an  account  is  given  that 
a  miraculous  fire  descends  from  heaven  at  the  festival  of  the  resurrection,  and  nearly  all  the  same 
ceremonies  are  gone  through  by  the  Christians  at  this  day,  as  I  have  just  now  shewn'were  practised 
in  honour  of  Adonis  5  which  word  Adonis,  it  may  be  observed,  is  nothing  but  the  Jewish  Adonai, 
which  is  always  translated  Lord  in  our  Bible,  in  order  to  disguise  the  truth  from  its  readers.  This 
Adonis  or  Tamas  was  the  same  which  we  found  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Thomas,  and  the  town  of 
Adoni,  in  South  India. 

Adonis  was  the  son  of  Myrra,  which  word,  in  the  old  language  without  points,  would  be  nearly 
the  same  as  Maria.  He  was  said  to  have  been  killed  by  a  boar  in  hunting.  This  will  not,  on  any 
account,  agree  with  the  verses  of  Julius  Firmicius ;  therefore  there  must  have  been  some  other 
history  to  which  he  alludes.  We  know  that  there  were  very  few  of  the  heathen  gods  which  had 
not  several  different  histories  of  their  births,  deaths,  &c,,  and  there  must  have  been  another  of 
Adonis  which  has  not  come  down  to  us. 

It  is  said,  that  the  Christians  of  Malabar  are  called  Christians  of  Nazaranee  Mapila,  or  Surians  of 
Surianee  Mapila.  From  this,  when  I  consider  that  almost  every  other  town  named  in  the  Christian 
mythos  has  been  found,  both  in  India  and  the  West  of  Asia,  I  cannot  help  thinking  it  probable  that 
a  town  called  Nazareth  will  be  found ;  as  it  is  evident  from  the  above,  that  there  is  or  was  a  country 
called  Nazarenee,  As  I  have  formerly  observed,  in  the  mountains  at  the  back  of  the  country 
where  these  Christians  are  found,  upon  the  river  Kistnah,  is  a  town  called  ADONI,  and  another 
called  Salem. l  Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  Adonis  was  Tammuz,  and  that  Kistnah  is  Cristna. 

The  Christians  of  St.  Thomas,  as  they  are  called,  yet  retain  many  of  the  old  Brahmin  customs, 
and  are  very  different  and  quite  distinct  from  the  modern  converts. 2  Part  of  them  are  said  also 
to  be  rather  lighter- coloured :  this  bespeaks  them  a  tribe  from  the  colder  country  of  Cashmere  or 
Afghanistan. 

When  I  reflect  upon  what  I  have  written  respecting  the  Erythrsean  Sibyl,  and  that  Justin 
Martyr  says  she  told  all  the  history  of  Christ,  almost  every  thing  which  had  happened  to  him, 
and  that  I  have  found  the  Tammuz  or  Adonis  in  the  part  of  India  where  the  Christians  of  St. 
Thomas  were  found,  and  compare  it  with  what  Parkhurst  has  said  above  respecting  Tammuz, 
Adonis,  &c.,  I  can  come  to  but  one  conclusion. 

I  must  request  my  reader  to  look  back  to  the  description  of  divine  love  crucified,  (Vol.  I.  p.  497,) 
and  reconsider  what  has  been  said  respecting  Baliji,  Wittoba,  or  Salivahana,  the  cross-borne, 
(ib.  667, 750,  7643)  respecting  the  deaths  and  resurrections  of  Adorns,  JSsculapiue,  &c,,  &c,,  &c,  $ 
and  I  think  he  will  not  be  surprised  to  find  a  crucified  Saviour  among  the  Romans.  This  he  will 
now  see  has  been  handed  down  to  us  on  evidence  in  its  nature  absolutely  unimpeachable.  Minu- 


Vol.  L  p.  666.  *  Ibid.  pp.  665,  666 ;  and  Asiat.  Res.  Vol.  VJI.  p,  36?. 

a  2 


116  GENTILE   CRUCIFIXION. 

tius  Felix,  a  very  celebrated  Christian  father,  who  lived  about  the  end  of  the  second  century,  in  a 
defence  of  the  Christian  religion,  called  Octavius,  has  the  following  passage : 

"  You  certainly  who  worship  wooden  Gods,  are  the  most  likely  people  to  adore  wooden  crosses, 
"  as  being  parts  of  the  same  substance  with  your  Deities.  For  what  else  are  your  ensigns, 
"  flags,  and  standards,  but  crosses  gilt  and  purified  ?  Your  victorious  trophies,  not  only  represent 
"  a  simple  cross,  BUT  A  CROSS  WITH  A  MAN  ON  ir.  The  sign  of  a  cross  naturally  appears  in  a 
«  ship,  either  when  she  is  under  sail  or  rowed  with  expanded  oars,  like  the  palm  of  our  hands  : 
"  not  a  juguin  erected  but  exhibits  the  sign  of  a  cross :  and  when  a  pure  worshiper  adores  the 
"  true  God  with  hands  extended,  he  makes  the  same  figure.  Thus  you  see  that  the  sign  of  the 
"  cross  has  either  some  foundation  in  nature,  or  IN  YOUR  OWN  RELIGION  :  and  therefore  not  to  be 
"  objected  against  Christians."1 

To  whom  could  Cicero  believe  the  acrostic  of  the  Sibyl,  mentioned  in  Volume  I.  pp,  5/4—576, 
applied  ?  I  now  answer,  to  the  crucified  person  commemorated  on  the  standard,  and  who  that 
might  be,  I  ask  the  priests — for  it  is  their  order  which  has  destroyed  all  the  evidence  respecting 
him.  But  I  think  few  persons  will  now  doubt  that  it  was  the  BLACK  crucified  person  whose  effigy 
we  see  in  thousands  of  places  all  over  Italy — the  Saviour  crucified  for  the  salvation  of  mankind, 
long  before  the  Christian  eera. 

I  think  no  unprejudiced  person  will  doubt  that  the  practice  of  the  Romans,  here  alluded  to  by 
Minutins,  of  carrying  a  crucified  man  on  their  standard,  has  been  concealed  from  us  by  the  careful 
destruction  of  such  of  their  works  as  alluded  to  it  5  and  that  its  existence  in  the  writing  of  Minu- 
tius  is  a  mere  oversight  of  the  destroyers* 

I  cannot  entertain  any  doubt  that  this  celebrated  Christian  father  alludes  to  some  Gentile 
mystery,  of  which  the  prudence  of  his  successors  has  deprived  us.  Perhaps  the  crucifixion  of 
divine  love  in  the  person  of  Ixion,  or  Prometheus,  or  Semiramis.  As  I  have  shewn  above,  in  the 
beginning  of  Christianity,  Christ  was  not  represented  on  a  cross,  but  in  the  figure  of  a  Lamb. 
This  is  proved  by  the  decree  of  the  Pope,  which  we  have  just  seen,  that  he  should  no  longer  be 
represented  as  a  Lamb,  but  as  a  Man  on  a  Cross. 

How  great  must  have  been  the  caution  of  the  priests  in  leaving  not  a  single  Gentile,  or,  at 
least,  Roman  remnant  of  this  crucified  person,  or  any  thing  which  could  lead  us  to  him,  so  that 
to  this  solitary,  though  very  complete,  Christian  evidence,  we  are  obliged  for  our  knowledge  of 
him  !  This  consideration  is  quite  enough  to  account  for  lacuna  in  our  copies  of  Tacitus,  of  Livy, 
of  the  Greek  plays  of  JEschylus,  Euripides,  &c.,  &c. :  for,  to  copies  made  by  the  hands  of  priests, 
we  are  indebted  for  every  work  of  these  authors  which  we  possess. 

How  very  extraordinary  that  not  a  single  icon  should  be  left  1  For  their  deficiency,  there  must 
be  some  other  cause  besides  the  astute  care  of  the  priests  $  and  that  cause  is  readily  explained — 
the  icons  have  become  Christian  crucifixes*  Of  these  great  numbers  are  to  be  seen  in  all  Romish 
countries,  which  have  every  mark  of  extreme  antiquity.  It  is  the  same  with  the  very  old  pictures 
carrying  the  inscription,  Deo  Soli,  and  Soli  Deo  Mitrae,  and  Narna  Sebadiah,  which  we  have  found 
in  Kalivvakam,  in  the  Tamul  language  in  India,  noticed  in  Volume  L  p.  776,  note,  p,  779*  and  in 
the  Appendix,  p,  835.  However,  it  is  certainly  proved  as  completely  as  it  is  possible  in  the 
nature  of  things  for  a  fact  of  this  nature  to  be  proved,  that  the  Romans  had  a  crucified  object  of 
adoration,  and  this  could  be  no  other  than  an  incarnation  of  the  God  Sol,  represented  in  some  way 
to  have  been  crucified.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  to  mere  accident  we  aie  indebted  for  the  passage 
of  Minutius  Felix. 

1  Min,  Pel.  Sect,  xxix. 


BOOK  II,    CHAPTER   III.   SECTION   5.  ]J7 

How  can  any  one  doubt  that  this  was  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  beginning  of  the  world the 

Solar  Lamb  incarnate  ?  The  Lamb  of  God  slain  as  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world  mav 
be  Romish  Christianity,  and  it  may  be  true,  but  it  is  not  the  Gospel  of  "Jesus,  the  Nazarite  of 
Samaria. 

I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  there  has  been  some  mythos  of  the  Xp]fo$  in  the  Greek  and 
Woman  Pantheons,  which  has  been  destroyed  \  and  that,  in  innumerable  places,  the  X^jg-o^,  in 
being  copied  by  the  priests,  has  been  converted  into  Christos ;  and  very  greatly  indeed  are  we 
indebted  to  Dr.  Clarke  for  having  honestly  given  us  the  inscription  at  or  near  Delphi. 

I  now  beg  my  reader  to  look  back  to  Vol.  I.  pp.  549—553,  and  there  he  will  see  the  account  of 
the  prophecy  of  Apollo  of  Miletus.  This  Apollo  was  called  Didymaeus  \  Didymus  means  Twins. 
In  this  country  there  was  a  place  called  Thamas.  There  was  also  a  town  called  Cresto-polis. 
Theic  was  a  river  Indus,  a  place  called  Sinda,  a  town  called  Calinda,  also  the  city  of  Erythraea, 
an  island  of  Calymna  or  Calainina,1  Mount  Chalcis,  Larissa,  and  the  island  of  Crete,2  called 
Candia3  and  lentil  I  think  in  the  Apollo  Didymseus  and  the  oracle  of  the  incarnate  person 
crucified  by  the  Chaldaeans,  we  cannot  be  blind  to  the  mythos  of  Cristna  and  Salivahana,  and  the 
Calli-dei  of  South  India  at  Calamina,  or  St.  Thomas,  or  the  twins.  Close  to  Rhodes  is  Portus 
Cresso,  the  Crestian  Port. 

In  this  country  also  is  a  Patara.  Wherever  we  have  an  Apollo  we  have  a  mythos  of  Patarse, 
or  Patiicius,  or  Patrick.  Gen.  Vallancey  has  traced  the  Miletii  from  Spain  to  Ireland.  The  people 
of  Miletus  are  called  Miletii*  On  this  coast  is  an  island  of  Calydonia,  and  a  cape  Kelidoni.  I 
cannot  doubt,  though  the  colony  might  stop  at  some  place  in  Spain,  that  it  first  came  from  this 
country,  at  which  time  came  Calydonia  to  Scotland,  and  Patrick  to  Ireland,  who  brought  the 
mythos  of  the  God  incarnate  crucified  by  the  Chaldaeans — the  God  Icriti  or  Critika,  which  was 
both  bull  and  ram — the  God  alluded  to  by  Apollo  of  Miletus. 

Col.  Tod  says,  "When  Alexander  attacked  the  'free  cities'  of  Panchalica,  the  Poorus  and 
"  Herictilas,  who  opposed  him,  evinced  the  recollections  of  their  ancestor,  in  carrying  the  figure 
"  of  Hercules  as  their  standard/' 5  Here,  I  have  no  doubt  whatever,  was  the  crucifix  of  Prome- 
theus, of  Ixion,  of  Cristna— the  crucifix  of  Balii  or  the  Lord  (if  Bai  meant  Lord)  M— the  crucifix 
which  Father  Georgius  found  set  up  at  every  cross  road  in  Tibet— (not  observed  by  our  English 
travellers,  though  the  Jesuit  could  see  it) — the  crucifix  of  Minutius  Felix,  and  the  crucifix  black  or 
copper  colour  at  every  point  WHERE  ROADS  CROSS  IN  ITALY,  (which  will  be  accounted  for  by  and 
by,  when  I  "treat  of  the  Etruscan  Agrimensores,)  and  in  hundreds  of  the  churches.  In  short,  it 
was  the  peculiar  emblem  of  the  Pandean  or  Catholic  religion  ;  for  I  have  no  doubt  whatever,  that 
both  these  words  have  the  meaning  of  universal;  and  /  suspect  that  the  perfect  mythic  history 
is  yet  secreted  in  the  recesses  of  the  conclaves  of  Tibet  and  Rome  :  and  that,  in  ancient  time,  it 
was  the  doctrine  of  the  Panionian  temple  at  Ephesus,  in  Asia  Minor,  of  the  Pandion  of  Athens, 
and  of  the  Ceres  or  Xg7]£  of  Eleusis  and  Delphi.  In  short,  it  was  the  universal  esoteric  religion 
of  the  world.  Every  common  Catholic  priest  will  swear  to-day  that  he  knows  this  to  be  false, 
and  to-  morrow  he  will  get  absolution  for  his  oath,  for  he  knows  nothing  about  it.  It  is  confided 
to  very  few  persons — whether  to  TWELVE  of  the  Cardinals  may  be  matter  of  doubt,  Here 
we  see  the  reason  why  the  Catholic  Popes  have  every  rite  and  ceremony  of  the  ancient  Hea- 
thens, as  they  are  called,  in  their  religion— the  CATHOLIC  religion.  If  I  am  mistaken,  then  the 


See  Vol  I.  p.  810.  a  The  French  Chi&icn.  3  Candy  or  Ceylon, 

Evidently  the  Indian  Kritika.  5  Hist,  Raj.  Vol.  I.  p.  51,  note. 


118  GENTILE  CRUCIFIXION. 

Brahmins  of  Italy  are  precisely  in  the  situation  of  the  Brahmins  of  India,  and  have  lost  their 
secret  system. 

Where  my  friend  Col.  Tod  learned  the  fact  he  has  stated,  respecting  the  standard,  I  do  not 
know ;  but  I  suppose  he  borrowed  it  from  Arrian,  who  says,  that  the  troops  of  Porus,  in  their  war 
with  Ale^ancsr,  carried  on  their  standards  the  figure  of  a  man.  This  must  have  been  a  Stauro- 
bates  or  Salivahana,  and  looks  very  like  the  figure  of  a  man  carried  on  their  standard  by  the 
Romans,  This  was  similar  to  the  Dove  carried  on  the  standards  of  the  Assyrians.  This  must 
hare  been  the  crucifix  of  Nepaul. 

GeorgiuB  says,  *  "  Ad  hoc  plane  tarn  inipias  ac  foedas  superstitionis  caput  referri  debent,  quae 
-*  de  seeunda  Trinitatis  Tibetanse  Persona  narrat  ex  P.  Andrada  La  Crozius  in  H.  Chr.  Ind.  p. 
"  5H  s  «  Us  conviemient  qu'il  a  r^pandu  [Cho  Conjoc]  son  sang  pour  le  salut  du  genre  humain, 
"ff«iyanl  ete  perc&  de  clous  par  tout  son  corps.  Quoiqu'ils  ne  disent  pas  qu'il  a  souffert  le 
"  €  supplice  de  la  croix,  on  en  trouve  pourtant  la  figure  dans  leurs  livres  :  Leur  grand  Lama 
"  c  cel£bre  une  espece  de  sacrifice  avec  du  pain  et  du  vin  dont  il  prend  une  petite  quantite,  et 
"  6  distribue  le  reste  aux  Lamas  presens  £  cette  c£remonie/  " 

The  Cambridge  Key  says,  te  Buddha,  the  author  of  happiness  and  a  portion  of  Narayen,  the 
4  Lord  Haree-sa,  the  preserver  of  all,  appeared  in  this  ocean  of  natural  beings  at  the  close  of  the 
"  Dwapar,  and  beginning  of  the  Calijug :  He  who  is  omnipotent,  and  everlastingly  to  be  contem- 
"  plated  5  the  Supieme  God5  the  eternal  ONE,  the  divinity  worthy  to  be  adored  by  the  most  pious 
"  of  mankind,  appeared  with  a  portion  of  his  divine  nature." 2  Jayadeva  describes  him  as 
"  bathing  in  blood,  or  sacrificing  his  life  to  wash  away  the  offences  of  mankind,  and  thereby  to 
"  make  them  partakers  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Can  a  Christian  doubt  that  this  Buddha  was 
"  the  type  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ?" 3  Very  well,  I  say  to  this  learned  Cantab,  I  will  not 
dispute  that  the  Cristna  crucified,  Baliji  crucified,  Semiramis  crucified,  Prometheus  crucified, 
Ixion  crucified,  were  all  types  of  the  Saviour,  if  it  so  please  him;  but  let  me  not  be  abused  for 
pointing  out  the  facts.  Type  or  not  type  must  be  left  to  every  person's  own  judgment.  Oa 
this  subject  I  shall  quarrel  with  no  one.  But  then  the  Gentile  religion  must  have  been  a  whole 
immense  type.  This  will  prove  Ammonius  right  that  there  was  only  one  religion. 

In  the  Apocalypse  or  Revelation,  ch.  xi.  ver.  8,  is  a  very  extraordinary  passage.  It  has  two 
readings.  In  one  it  says  ih&t  your  Lord  was  crucified  in  Egypt,  in  the  other,  the  received  text, 
it  sa}  s  our  Lord  was  crucified,  &c.  Griesbach  says  of  the  former  indulfe  genuina.  This  evidently 
alludes  to  the  man  crucified  of  Minutiae  Felix,  who  was  thus  crucified  at  Rome,  in  Egypt,  Greece, 
India,  at  Miletus,  &c*  This  is  obviously  a  piece  of  Heathen  mythology,  of  which,  in  the  West, 
the  priests  have  nearly  deprived  us ;  but  there  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  it  is  one  of  the  Saliva- 
lianas,  Staurobateses,  Baliis,  Wittobas,  Prometheuses,  Semiramises,  and  Ixions,  of  the  East. 
If  we  take  the  passage  to  mean  our  Lord,  we  have  the  Heathen  or  Gnostic  cross-borne  of  Egypt, 
(for  Christians  do  not  pretend  that  Jesus  was  crucified  in  Egypt,)  grafted  on  the  Romish 
Christianity,  like  all  their  other  rites  and  ceremonies.  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  crucifixion  of 
every  Avatar,  as  it  passed,  was  simultaneously  celebrated  at  each  of  the  five  temples  of  Solomon 
in  Egypt,  wherein  the  Jewish  prophet  declares  that  the  name  of  the  true  God  shall  be  praised, 

I  have  some  suspicion  also  that  the  cross  of  Constantine  was  a  crucifix.    When  he  and  Eusebius 


|  Alph  Tib.p  211 

4  In  the  Haree-sa,  the  preserver  of  all,  we  have  the  Hebrew  mrr  ere  geneatrut,  and  w  iw  the  Saviour;  and  in  the 
Haree  or  Heri  we  have  also  the  Gieek  Ep«$,  Divine  Love,  the  Sauour  of  all. 

»  Camb  Key,  Vol  I.  p.  118. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  6.  119 

were  lying,  (as  Lardner  has  proved  they  were,)  it  was  only  taking  the  matter  by  halves  not  to 
take  the  body  with  the  cross.  However,  this  suspicion  imports  but  little,  as  it  is  very  clear  that  a 
crudfx  was  the  object  of  adoration  from  the  Indus  to  the  Tibur  j  and  I  suspect  even  to  thejfzre 
tower  at  Brechin,  in  Scotland. l  Col.  Tod  says,2  "  The  Heraclidas  claimed  from  Atreus  :  the 
"  Hericulas  claim  from  AtrL  Euristhenes  was  the  first  king  of  the  Heraclidse :  Yoodishtra  has 
"  sufficient  affinity  in  name  to  the  first  Spartan  king,  not  to  startle  the  etymologist,,  the  d  and  ^ 
"  being  always  permutable  in  Sanscrit."  Surely  the  identity  of  the  Greek  and  Indian  Hercules 
cannot  be  doubted,  nor  the  identity  of  their  ancestor  Atreus  ? 

It  seems  to  me  qxnte  impossible  for  any  person  to  have  read  the  preceding  part  of  this  work 
with  attention,  and  not  to  have  felt  convinced  that  there  has  originally  been  one  universal  mythos, 
repeated  in  a  vast  number  of  different  aud  very  distant  places.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  the 
whole  original  mythos  should  be  found  anywhere;  the  eternal  law  of  change  forbids  this :  nor 
can  it  be  expected  that  it  should  be  found  in  every  respect  the  same  in  any  two  places.  This  again 
the  law  of  change  forbids.  For  the  mythos  must  change  in  all  the  places,  and  it  is  a  million  to 
one  that  in  any  two  it  should  be  found  after  several  thousand  years  to  have  made  in  each  the  same 
change,  so  that  at  this  time  they  should  be  exactly  similar.  But  a  sufficient  degree  of  similarity 
is  found  to  mark  the  fact,  in  great  numbers  of  them,  and  in  some  really  much  greater  than  could 
have  been  expected*  What  can  be  more  striking  than  that  which  we  have  found  in  Rome  and 
Tibet  > 

In  almost  every  mythos  we  see  the  same  immaculate  conception,  the  same  ten  months*  preg- 
nancy, the  same  attempts  of  an  enemy  to  destroy  the  infant,  the  same  triumph  of  the  infant,  his 
glorious  and  benevolent  character  and  life,  his  final  violent  death,  and  his  resurrection  to  life  and 
immortality  \  and  all  this  constantly  connected  with  a  town  on  seven  hills,  &c.,  &c.,  &c. 

When  1  reflect  deeply  upon  certain  facts  which  cannot  be  disputed,  and  upon  the  identity  of 
the  worship  of  Tammuz,  in  Western  Syria,  of  Tammuz  in  Egypt,  and  Tamus  both  in  Northern 
and  Southern  India,  that  is,  the  two  Eastern  Syrias  $  upon  the  high  probability,  (shall  I  not  say 
certainty?)  that  the  Esseneans  of  Egypt  and  Western  Syria  were  Pythagoreans  and  followers  of 
the  Xpj£,  that  is,  Christians,  before  the  time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  upon  the  account  of  Christian 
doctrines  in  Southern  India,  given  by  the  Jesuits — and  upon  the  extraordinary  fact  that,  when 
the  work  of  Eusebius  is  properly  translated,  as  given  by  the  Rev.  R.  Taylor,  the  whole  doctrine 
and  church  establishment  of  the  Christians  is  found  among  the  Esseneans  in  Egypt ;  I  cannot  help 
suspecting  that  the  church  of  the  Pagan  Christian  Constantine  was  nothing  but  the  transplantation 
of  the  Esaenes  to  the  West,  and  that  the  secret,  allegorical  doctrines  of  these  monks  were  those 
of  the  God  Adonis,  or  Thamas,  the  Saviour  re-incarnated  or  renewed  every  new  cycle. 

6.  I  presume  it  is  well  known  to  my  reader,  that  in  the  first  two  centuries  the  professors  of 
Christianity  were  divided  into  many  sects;  but  these  might  be  all  resolved  into  two  divisions — 
one  consisting  of  Nazarencs,  Ebionites,  and  Orthodox  $  the  other  of  Gnostics,  under  which  all  the 
remaining  sects  arranged  themselves.  The  former  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  crucified,  in  the 
common,  literal  acceptation  of  the  term  5  the  latter,  though  they  admitted  the  crucifixion,  consi- 
dered it  to  have  been  in  some  mystic  way — perhaps  what  might  be  called  spiritualiter,  as  it  is 
called  in  the  Revelation :  but  notwithstanding  the  different  opinions  they  held,  they  all  denied 
that  Christ  did  really  die,  in  the  literal  acceptation  of  the  term,  on  the  cross.  These  Gnostic  or 
Oriental  Christians  took  their  doctrine  from  the  Indian  crucifixion  of  which  we  have  just  treated, 


See  Celtic  Druids,  Introd.  pp.  xlvi.  xlvii.  ft  Hist,  Raj.  Vol.  L  p.  51,  note. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  HI.   SECTION  6.  1 19 

were  lying,  (as  Larclner  has  proved  they  were,)  it  was  only  taking  the  matter  by  halves  not  to 
take  the  body  with  the  cross.  However,  this  suspicion  imports  but  little,  as  it  is  very  clear  that  a 
cmcifix  was  the  object  of  adoration  from  the  Indus  to  the  Tibur;  and  I  buspect  even  to  thejm? 
tower  at  Brechin,  in  Scotland.1  Col.  Tod  says,2  "  The  Heraclidae  claimed  from  Atreus  :  the 
"  Hericulas  claim  from  Atri.  Euristhenes  was  the  first  king  of  the  Heraclidae :  Yoodishtra  has 
"  sufficient  affinity  in  name  to  the  first  Spartan  king,  not  to  startle  the  etymologist,,  the  d  and  rf 
"  being  always  permutable  in  Sanscrit/'  Surely  the  identity  of  the  Greek  and  Indian  Hercules 
cannot  be  doubted,  nor  the  identity  of  their  ancestor  Atreus  ? 

It  seems  to  me  quite  impossible  for  any  person  to  have  read  the  pieceding  part  of  this  work 
with  attention*  and  not  to  have  felt  convinced  that  there  has  originally  been  one  universal  mylhob, 
repeated  in  a  vast  number  of  different  and  very  distant  places.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  the 
whole  original  mythos  should  be  found  anywhere;  the  eternal  law  of  change  forbids  this :  nor 
can  it  be  expected  that  it  should  be  found  in  every  respect  the  same  in  any  two  places.  This  again 
the  law  of  change  forbids.  For  the  mythos  must  change  in  all  the  places,  and  it  is  a  million  to 
one  that  in  any  two  it  should  be  found  after  several  thousand  years  to  have  made  in  each  the  same 
change,  so  that  at  this  time  they  should  be  exactly  similar.  But  a  sufficient  degree  of  similarity 
is  found  to  mark  the  fact,  in  great  numbers  of  them,  and  in  some  really  much  greater  than  could 
have  been  expected.  What  can  be  more  striking  than  that  which  we  have  found  in  Rome  and 
Tibet  ? 

In  almost  every  mythos  we  see  the  same  immaculate  conception,  the  same  ten  months'  preg- 
nancy, the  same  attempts  of  an  enemy  to  destroy  the  infant,  the  same  triumph  of  the  infant,  his 
glorious  and  benevolent  character  and  life,  his  final  violent  death,  and  his  resurrection  to  life  and 
immortality ;  and  all  this  constantly  connected  with  a  town  on  seven  hills,  &c.,  &c,,  &c. 

When  I  reflect  deeply  upon  certain  facts  which  cannot  be  disputed,  and  upon  the  identity  of 
the  worship  of  Tammuz,  in  Western  Syria,  of  Taminuz  in  Egypt,  and  Tamus  both  in  Northern 
and  Southern  India,  that  is,  the  two  Eastern  Syrias ;  upon  the  high  probability,  (shall  I  not  say 
certainty?)  that  the  Esseneans  of  Egypt  and  Western  Syria  were  Pythagoreans  and  followers  of 
the  X^3£,  that  is,  Christians,  before  the  time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  upon  the  account  of  Christian 
doctrines  in  Southern  India,  given  by  the  Jesuits — and  upon  the  extraordinary  fact  that,  when 
the  work  of  Eusebius  is  properly  translated,  as  given  by  the  Rev.  R.  Taylor,  the  whole  doctrine 
and  church  establishment  of  the  Christians  is  found  among  the  Esseneans  in  Egypt ;  I  cannot  help 
suspecting  that  the  church  of  the  Pagan  Christian  Constantine  was  nothing  but  the  transplantation 
of  the  Essenes  to  the  West,  and  that  the  secret,  allegorical  doctrines  of  these  monks  were  those 
of  the  God  Adonis,  or  T hamas,  the  Saviour  re-incarnated  or  renewed  every  new  cycle. 

6.  I  presume  it  is  well  known  to  my  reader,  that  in  the  first  two  centuries  the  professors  of 
Christianity  were  divided  into  many  sects ;  but  these  might  be  all  resolved  into  two  divisions-- 
one consisting  of  Nazarenes,  Ebionites,  and  Orthodox  ;  the  other  of  Gnostics,  under  which  all  the 
remaining  sects  arranged  themselves.  The  former  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  cruci&ed,  in  the 
common,  literal  acceptation  of  the  term ;  the  latter,  though  they  admitted  the  crucifixion,  consi- 
dered it  to  have  been  in  some  mystic  way — perhaps  what  might  be  called  spiritualiter,  as  it  is 
called  in  the  Revelation :  but  notwithstanding  the  different  opinions  they  held,  they  all  denied 
that  Christ  did  really  die,  in  the  literal  acceptation  of  the  term,  oil  the  cross.  These  Gnostic  or 
Oriental  Christians  took  their  doctrine  from  the  Indian  crucifixion  of  which  we  have  just  treated, 


See  Celtic  Druids,  lutrod.  pp.  xlvi.  xlvii,  a  Hist,  Raj.  Vol.  I  p.  51,  note. 


120  JESUS   CHRIST  WAS   NOT  CRUCIFIED* 

as  well  as  many  other  tenets  with  which  we  have  found  the  Romish  Church  deeply  tainted.    This 
my  reader  must  see  will  enable  him  to  account  for  many  extraordinary  things. 

I  have  already  remarked,  that  the  Pagan  Roman  crucifix  was  purposely  concealed  5  for  no  one 
can  doubt  that  there  must  have  been  some  history  connected  with  it.  And  persons  may  believe 
or  not  believe  as  the  impressions  on  their  minds  or  their  prejudices  may  dictate  $  yet  the  evidence 
of  the  fact—  the  authority  of  Minutius  —  is  complete  and  cannot  be  disputed9  on  any  principle  of 
sound  criticism.  And  the  fact  must  have  been  purposely  concealed,  or  we  should  have  had  notice 
of  it  ia  some  of  the  Roman  historians  or  writers.  I  know  that  for  honestly  bringing  forward  this 
and  many  other  facts,  it  will  be  said  that  I  am  not  a  Christian  ;  at  least  by  great  numbers  of  those 
who  will  not  allow  any  person  to  be  a  Christian  who  is  not  of  their  sect.  I  shall  be  accused  of 
not  believing  the  crucifixion,  except  as  an  allegory.  But  I  may  doubt  this  fact  (though  I  expressly 
say,  I  do  not  here  state  my  opinion  upon  it),  and  yet  be  a  Christian,  as  much,  at  least,  as  the 
celebrated  Christian  SAINT,  APOLOGIST,  and  MART  YE,  the  oithodox  writer  against  heresies,  the 
BISHOP  of  Lyons,  SAINT  IREN&US,  from  whose  works  I  have  extracted  the  following  passage.  I 
think  I  surely  have  a  right  to  call  myself  a  Christian,  if  I  am  of  the  religion  of  this  orthodox 
Saint  and  Martyr  :  but  I  repeat,  at  present  I  do  not  state  my  opinion. 

Lib.  ii.  Cap,  xxxix.  of  Dr.  Grabe's  Irenseus  has  the  following  title  :  fi  Ostensio  quod  uno  anno 
"mm  praeconiaverit  Dominua  post  baptisnmm;  scd  omnem  habuisse  aetatem."  And  it  contains 
the  following  passage:  "Domes  enim  venit  per  semetipsum  salvare  :  omnes  inquam,  qui  per 
"  emu  renascuntur  in  Deum,  infantes,  et  parvulos,  et  pueros,  et  juvenes,  et  seniores.  Ideo  per 
"  omnem  venit  eetatem,  et  infantibus  infans  factus,  sanctificans  infantes  :  in  parvulis  parvulus, 
cc  sanctificans  hanc  ipsam  habentes  setatem,  simul  et  exemplum  illis  pietdtis  effectusfl  et  justiciee, 
"  et  subjections  :  in  juvenibus  juvenis,  exemplum  juvenibus  fiens,  et  sanctificans  Domino.  Sic  et 
**  senior  in  senioribus,  ut  sit  perfectus  magister  in  omnibus,  non  solum  secundum  expositionem 
"  veritatis,  sed  et  secundum  atatem,  sanctificans  simul  et  seniores,  exemplum  ipsis  quoque  fiens  : 
"  delude  et  usque  ad  mortem  pervenit,  ut  sit1  primogenitus  ex  mortuis,  ipse  primatum  tenens  in 
"  omnibus  princeps  vitas,  prior  omnium,  et  prascedens  omnes.  Illi  autem,  ut  figmentum  sumn  de  eo 
"  quod  est  sciiptum,  vocare  annum  Domini  acceptum,  affirment,  dicunt  uno  anno  enm  pradicasse, 
"  et  duodecimo  meuse  passum,  contra  semetipsos  obliti  sunt,  solventes  ejus  omne  negocium,  et 
"  magis  necessarian!,  et  magis  honorabilem  aetatem  ejus  auferentes,  illam,  inquam,  provcctiorem, 
"  in  qua  edocens  praceiat  univerbis.  Quomodo  enim  habuit  discipulos,  si  uon  docebat  ?  Quo- 
"  modo  autem  docebat,  raagistri  aetatem  non  habens  ?  Ad  baptismum  enim  venit  nondum  qui 
"  triginta  annos  suppleverat,  sed  qui  inciperet  esse  tanquam  triginta  aimorutn  :  (ita  enim,  qui 
"ejus  annos  significavit  Lucas,  posuit:  JESUS  autem  erat  quasi  incipient  tngmta  owworwn/cum 
"  veniret  ad  baptismum):  et  ^  baptismate  uno  tantum  anno  prsedicavit;  complens  trigesimum 
"  annum,  passus  est,  adhuc  juvenis  existens,  et  qui  necdum  provectiorem  haberet  eetatem.  Quia 
"  autem  triginta  annorum  aetas  prima  indolis  est  juvenis,  et  extenditur  usque  ad  quadragesimum 
«  annum,  omnis  quilibet  confitebitur:  fc  quadragesimo  autem  et  quinquagesimo  anno  dedinat  jam 
"in  astern  seniorem:  quam  habens  Dominus  noster  docebat,  sicut  Evangelium  «  ct  omnes 
«  'seniores  testantur,  qui  in  Asi*  apud  Joannem  discipulum  Domini  convenerunt,  id  ipsum  tradi- 
"  <  disse  eis  Joannem.  Perrnansit  autem  cum  eis  usque  ad  Trajani  temporal  " 

futprupew,  oJ  xaranjy  Airw  Icoavv^  ry  rs  Ku^w 


Coloss.  i.  18, 


o 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  111.    SECTION  6.  121 


s,1  7rapa&!&asxsVQLi  raura  r^v  Icootwjjr  TroLpepsive  yap  OLVTUS  ^XP^  ra)V 
Quidam  autem  eorum  non  solum  Joannem,  sed  et  alios  Apostolos  viderunt,  et  haec 
eadem  ab  ipsis  audierunt,  et  testantur  de  hujusmodi  relatione." 

"  A  demonstration  that  the  Lord  preached  after  his  baptism  not  (merely)  for  one  year  ;  but 
"  that  he  employed  (in  preaching)  the  whole  term  of  his  life.  For  he  came  to  save  all  through 
"  himself:  all  I  say  who  through  him  are  born  again  to  God  —  infants,  little  children,  boys,  youths, 
"  and  old  people.  Therefore  he  came  (preached)  in  every  stage  of  life  :  and  made  an  infant  with 
"infants,  sanctifying  infants:  a  child  among  children,  sanctifying  those  of  the  same  age  as 
"  himself:  and  at  the  same  time  supplying  an  example  to  them  of  piety,  of  justice,  and  of  submis- 
"  hion  :  a  youth  among  youths,  becoming  an  example  to  youths,  and  sanctifying  them  to  the 
u  Lord.  So  also  an  elder  among  elders,  that  the  teacher  might  be  perfect  in  all  things,  not  only 
"  according  to  the  exposition  (law  or  rule)  of  truth,  but  also  according  to  the  period  of  life  —  and 
"  sanctifying  at  the  same  time  the  elders,  becoming  an  example  even  to  them  :  after  that  he  came 
"  to  death  that  he  might  be  the  first-born  from  the  dead,  he  himself  having  pre-eminence  in  all 
"  things,  the  prince  of  life,  above  all,  and  excelling  all.  But  to  establish  their  own  forgery  that  it 
"  is  written  of  him,  to  call  (it  ?)  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  they  say  against  themselves  that 
"  he  preached  (during)  one  year  (only  ?)  and  suffered  on  the  twelfth  month  (of  it  ?)  They  have 
"  forgotten—  giving  up  every  (important  ?)  affair  of  his,  and  taking  away  the  more  necessary,  the 
"  more  honourable,  and,  I  say,  that  more  advanced  period  of  his,  in  which,  teaching  diligently, 
"  he  presided  over  all.  For  how  did  he  obtain  disciples  if  he  did  not  teach  ?  And  how  did  he 
"  teach—  not  having  attained  the  age  of  a  master  (or  doctor  ?)  For  he  came  to  baptism  who  had 
"  not  yet  completed  thirty  years  of  age  :  (for  thus  Luke  who  indicates  his  years  lays  it  down  :  and 
"  Jesus  was  as  it  were  entering  on  thirty  years  when  he  came  to  baptism  :)  and  after  (his  ?)  bap- 
"  tism  he  preached  only  one  year  :—  (on)  completing  his  thirtieth  year  he  suffered  (death)  being  as 
fiC  yet  only  a  young  man,  who  had  not  attained  maturity.  But  as  the  chief  part  of  thirty  years 
"  belongs  to  youth,  (or,  and  a  person  of  thirty  may  be  considered  a  young  man  ?)  and  every  one 
"  will  confess  him  to  be  such  till  the  fortieth  year  :  but  from  the  fortieth  to  the  fiftieth  year  he 
"  declines  into  old  age,  which  our  Lord  having  attained  he  taught  as  the  Gospel,  and  all  the  eldors 
"  who,  in  Asia  assembled  with  John  the  disciple  of  the  Lord,  testify,  and  (as)  John  himself  had 
"  taught  them.  And  he  (John  ?)  remained  with  them  till  the  time  of  Trajan.  And  some  of  them 
"  saw  not  only  John  but  other  apostles,  and  heard  the  same  things  from  them,  and  bear  the  same 
**  testimony  to  this  revelation." 

Although  this  passage  is  very  difficult  to  translate,  arising  probably  from  a  wish  of  the  translator 
out  of  the  Greek  into  the  Latin,  to  disguise  the  true  meaning  ;  yet  it  is  evident  that  Irenaeub 
accuses  the  other  party  of  FORGERY,  in  representing  Jesus  to  have  been  put  to  death  only  one 
year  after  he  began  his  ministry.  But  I  shall  discuss  this  more  at  length  in  a  future  book. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  what  J  have  said  respecting  the  evidence  of  Irenseus  will  excite  great 
surprise,  and  probably  smiles  of  contempt  in  many  persons  ;  but  I  call  upon  all  such  individuals, 
not  to  give  way  to  their  vulgar  prejudices,  but  to  try  this  evidence  by  the  rules  by  which  evidence 
is  examined  in  a  court  of  justice.  This  is  the  only  way  of  bringing  the  matter  to  a  fair  decision; 
but  1  believe  there  are  very  few,  of  even  educated  persons,  who  ever  think  upon  the  nature  or  value 
of  evidence,  or  know  that  the  consideration  of  the  subject  is  of  any  consequence,  This  is  the 


,    ,         , ...pTfi«)  Ita  Eusebius  loco  citato  et  Nicephorus,  Lib,  iii.  Cap.  ii.    Sed  in  Georgii  Sincelli  Chronographia 
p.  345,  edit.  Paris,  1652,  excuderunt  erv^^^wrt^  et  ne  quid  varietdtis  dicit,  in  marg-ini  posuerunt  «n/^^e^wxore^ » 


VOL.   II. 


122  JESUS    CHRIST  WAS   NOT   CatTCIFIKD. 

reason  why  so  much  nonsense  is  found  to  be  believed,  even  by  persons  who,  on  other  topics, 
evince  a  sound  and  discriminating  judgment. 

From  this  passage  of  St.  Irenseus's,  which  has  so  fortunately  escaped  the  hands  of  the  destroyers, 
we  learn  the  fact  which  cannot  be  disputed,  that  the  doctrine  of  Christ  crucified,  preached  in  so 
pointed  a  manner  by  St.  Paul,  was,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  a  vexata  questio  among  Christians  even 
in  the  second  century  :  this  shews  that  we  are  merely  a  sect  of  Paulites. 1 

If  Col.  Wilford  may  be  believed,  the  orthodox  were  not  the  only  persons  who  disputed  the  age 
of  Christ.  Speaking  of  the  sectaries,  he  says,  "  Some  insisted  that  he  lived  thirty,  thirty-three^ 
forty  >  and  others  nearly  but  not  quite  fifty  years.  Stephanus  Gobarus  has  collected  many  of  these 
idle  notions,  in  the  extracts  made  of  his  works  by  Photius."  2  They  may  be  idle  notions  in  the 
opinion  of  Col.  Wilford,  but  they  support  the  evidence  of  Irenaeus,  and  what  I  have  said,  that  it 
was  a  vemta  questio. 

Every  oriental  scholar  knows,  that  Sir  William  Jones,  Wilford,  &c.,  have  proved  that  the  God 
Indra,  of  India,  is  the  Jupiter  Pluvialis  of  Greece ;  and  I  have  proved  that  Jupiter  is  the  God  lao 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Jesus  of  the  Romish  church.  Then  we  have  lao  crucified  on  a  tree, 3  in 
Nepaul.  See  my  figures,  Number  14.  I  beg  my  reader  to  turn  to  the  map ;  he  will  there  find, 
in  the  Golden  peninsula  or  Chersonesus,  the  Crysen  or  country  of  Xgijs,4  the  kingdom  of  Judea 
and  Mount  Sion  at  the  top  of  it.  In  Nepaul  and  Tibet  there  are  the  Eastern  Pope  and  his  monks, 
&c»,  and  a  crucified  God.  Again,  in  the  promontory  of  India,  in  the  South,  at  Tanjore,  and  in  the 
North,  at  Oude  or  Ayoudia,  there  are  the  crucified  God  Bal-Ii,  St.  Thomas,  Montes  Sohimi,  son** 
of  David,  icons  of  Noah,  Job,  Seth,  &c.,  &c. :  and  again,  in  the  West,  there  are  Bacchus,  Osiris, 
Atys,  &c.,  &c.,  all  put  to  death  and  raised  the  third  day;  and  this  done,  let  him  declare  what  he 
thinks  of  it.  If  he  be  satisfied,  with  Parkhurst,  that  all  these  things  are  types  or  symbols  of  what 
the  real  Saviour  was  to  do  and  siiffer9  then  I  ask  him  to  say  what  he  thinks  of  the  evidence  of 
Irenaeus,  that  the  real  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  not  crucified  by  Pontius  Pilate.  Perhaps  he  will  not 
believe  Irenaeus:  then  do  I  tell  him,  that  Irenasus,  in  a  court  of  justice,  is  evidence  conclusive, 
that  he  heard,  as  stated,  from  the  old  men  of  Asia,  &c.,  &c.,  and,  if  the  reader  do  not  believe  him, 
he  entertains  an  opinion  contrary  to  evidence*  I  maintain,  that  the  evidence  of  Irenseus  is  the 
best  evidence  which  we  possess  of  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  \  because  it  is  the  evidence  of  an  un- 
willing witness.  This  brings  to  recollection  the  doctrine  formerly  noticed,  of  certain  heretics 
maintaining,  that  Christ  was  crucified  in  the  heavens  ;  that  is,  I  suppose,  in  the  y*pi  rqio  of  the 
second  verse  of  Genesis.  It  also  reminds  me  that  Justin  Martyr,  after  Plato,  maintained  him  to 
have  been  described  on  the  world  or  universe  in  the  form  of  a  cross.6  All  these  facts,  which 
tend  to  one  point,  cannot,  I  think,  mean  nothing ;  and  this  leads  me  to  a  suspicion,  that  there  lies 
hidden  under  them  a  most  important  and  profound  part  of  the  esoteric  religion.  The  ChrSstos, 
Xpjs--o£,  was  the  Logos ;  the  Sun  was  the  Shekinah  or  Manifestation  of  the  Logos  or  Wisdom  to 
men  3  or,  as  it  was  held  by  some,  it  was  his  peculiar  habitation.  The  sun  was  crucified  when  he 
seemed  to  cross  the  plane  of  the  Equator  at  the  vernal  equinox.  He  was  slain  at  every  passover ; 
but  he  was  also  slain  in  his  passage,  at  the  vernal  equinox,  from  Taurus  to  Aries  \  and  this  is  de- 
scribed by  the  young  man  slaying  the  Bull  in  the  Mithraic  ceremonies,  and  the  slain  lamb  at  the 


1  Paul  was,  however,  preceded  by  Peter  in  preaching  Christ  crucified.  (See  Acts  ii.  23,  24,  32,  iii.  13—18.)  Might 
not  believers  in  the  doctrine  of  "  Christ  crucified,5*  therefore,  be  as  justly  denominated  "  merely  a  sect  of  Peterites"  as 
"of Paulites"?  Editor. 

*  Asiat.  Res.  Vol  X,  p.  93.  3  Georgius,  p.  202.  *  Ibid.  p.  348.  4  VoL  I.  pp.  788, 789. 


BOOK    II.      CHAPTER    III.      SECTION  7»  123 

foot  of  the  cross  in  the  Christian  ceremonies.  The  man  Jesus  was  the  Logos,  or  Divine  Wisdom, 
or  a  portion  of  Divine  Wisdom  incarnate:  in  this  sense  he  was  really  the  sun  or  the  solar  power 
incarnate,  and  to  him  every  thing  applicable  to  the  sun  will  apply.  He  was  the  Logos  ciucined 
in  the  heavens  ;  he  was  the  being  described,  according  to  Justin,  in  the  heavens,  in  the  form  of  a 
cross,  and  when  the  man  Jesus  taught  the  direst  Xp^orr  crucified,  this,  or  something  like  it,  i 
suspect,  was  the  doctrine  which  he  taught.  When  we  find  from  Irenaeus  that  he  was  not  murdered 
or  killed,  all  we  can  make  out  of  our  four  gospel-histories  is,  that  they  were  allegories,  parables, 
apologues,  to  conceal  the  secret  doctrine.  The  evidence  of  Irenaeus  cannot  be  touched.  On  every 
principle  of  sound  criticism,  and  of  the  doctrine  of  probabilities,  it  is  unimpeachable.  The  doctrine 
I  here  suggest  unites  all  the  discordances  of  every  kind.  I  know  that  a  great  outcry  will  be  made 
at  me  for  saying  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  sun.  In  the  vulgar  acceptation  of  the  words,  I  can 
only  say  that  this  is  not  true.  But  that  Jesus  or  the  Logos  was  believed  to  be  a  portion  of  ethe- 
real fire  by  every  one  of  the  early  fathers,  is  a  fact ;  whether  their  belief  was  true  or  not,  is  another 
question.  He  was  the  Xpj£  of  India  ;  He  was  the  %py$-sv  of  the  Tamul,  which  had  en  for  its 
termination  5  the  Cres-us  of  the  Sanscrit,  and  the  Chres-us  of  the  Latin,  which  had  us  for  their 
terminations. 

The  ancient  philosophers  being  much  too  refined  and  correct  in  their  ideas  to  take  up  with  the  , 
vulgar  opinion,  formed  in  a  comparatively  barbarous  period,  that  the  world  was  created  by  spirit, ] 
that  is,  air  in  motion,  (the  correct  and  only  proper  meaning  of  the  word  spirit,  if  it  have  any  defi- 
nable meaning)  were  driven  to  have  recourse  either  to  a  refined  igneous  principle,  in  fact,  to  fire, 
or  to  use  the  word  illusion.  And  they  came  to  the  last,  because  they  found,  on  deep  reflection, 
that  they  could  form  no  idea  of  the  First  Cause  ;  but  of  the  emanations  from  it,  they  could  3  and, 
therefore,  they  conceived  that  the  Creator  was  a  refined  fire,  emanating  from  the  To  Ov,  or  from 
the  illusory  unknown  being.  All  the  mistakes  of  moderns  arise  from  inattention  to  Locke's  un- 
questionable doctrine,  that  man  can  possess  no  ideas  which  he  does  not  receive  through  the 
medium  of  his  senses  $  consequently,  man  erroneously  fancies  he  has  an  idea  of  an  unknown  ex- 
istence, called  spirit  or  a  spiritual  being — an  unknown  existence,  which  he  chooses  to  call  by  a 
xvord  that  means  air  in  motion.  This  unknown  ITctT7]g  ayva>crro£  the  philosophers  called  the  To  Q? 
— surely  a  much  better  word  than  that  which  only  meant  air  in  motion.  But,  in  fact,  by  thib 
nonsensical  word,  the  moderns  contrive  to  deceive  themselves,  and  gratify  their  malice  by  sepa- 
rating themselves  from  the  ancient  philosophers,  who,  if  alive,  would  be  very  much  ashamed  to  be  \ 
of  their  company. 

The  view  which  I  here  take  of  this  subject  perfectly  reconciles  the  passage  of  Irenaeus  in  ques- 
tion, with  the  passages  where  he  quotes  our  four  gospel  histories.  I  cannot  conceive  any  other 
mode  of  reconciling  them.  Let  those  who  disapprove  it  produce  a  better.  All  this  is  in  perfect 
keeping  with  the  whole  of  the  esoteric  doctrines  of  Jews,  Gentiles,  and  Christians ;  and  all  this 
will  be  confirmed  still  more  by  the  examination  of  our  four  gospel  histories  into  which  I  shall 
enter  in  a  future  book,  and  which  I  shall  shew  were  intended  for  the  purpose  of  concealing  a  secret 
system.  No  one  can  deny  that  these  books  are  full  of  parables  :  without  a  parable  spake  he  not 
unto  them.  The  whole  is  a  parable,  which  covers  the  esoteric  religion — a  parable  which  it  was 
impossible  for  the  popes  to  explain  to  persons  afflicted  with  insanity,  like  Luther  and  Calvin. 

7-  In  the  Old  Monthly  Magazine,  in  the  numbers  for  October  1803,  p.  221,  Nov.  1803,  p*  305, 
May  1815,  p.  308,  will  be  found  a  curious  inquiry  into  the  question,  Who  wrote  Wisdom  ?  In 
the  same  Magazine  for  December  1815,  p.  407,  August  1817,  P«  35,  Nov.  1817?  P-  313,  Who  was 
the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  ?  And  in  January  1818,  p.  505,  and  in  August  1818,  p.  36,  Who  was 
the  author  of  Sirach  ?  A  careful  perusal  of  those  essays  will  clearly  shew,  why  these  books  have  been 


124  JEWISH    INCARNATION. 

determined  by  the  church,  or  rather,  I  should  say,  by  modern  priests,  to  have  been  written  after  the 
time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  They  are  refused  by  Protestants  because  they  never  knew  any  thing  of 
esoteric  Christianity,  They  were  received  by  the  members  of  the  Romish  church,  because  they  un- 
derstood the  esoteric  Christianity.  I  must  beg  my  reader  to  recollect  what  I  have  said,  in  Volume  L 
p.  198,  of  the  renewed  avatars  or  incarnations  of  the  Jews,  then  I  think  he  will  see  from  the  following 
essay,  January  18L8,  p.  505,  an  example  of  a  crucifixion  before  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ  among  the 
Jews  to  match  the  crucifixions  of  Buddba  and  Cristna,  and  the  Chribt  of  the  Romans. 

"  The  claim  of  the  son-of-godship  at  Jerusalem,  however  legally  vested  in  the  house  of  Hillel, 
"  was  practically  usurped  by  the  house  of  Herod.  If  the  representative  of  David  was  king  dejure, 
"  the  tetrarch  was  king  de  facto.  In  the  eye  of  the  reigning  dynasty,  whoever  claimed  to  be  Sou 
"  of  God  advanced  a  treasonable  claim ;  and  under  a  constitution  so  strictly  theocratic  as  to  iden- 
"  tify  the  sovereign  and  the  Lord,  (see,  for  instance,  Exod.  xxxv.  30,)  would  technically  be  in- 
"  dieted  for  blasphemy.  Some  such  accusation  (xi.)  our  Jesus  incuned,  was  in  consequence 
"  crucified,  interred,  and  rose  again  from  the  sepulchre.  Here  is  his  own  account  of  this  extraor- 
"  dinary  and  momentous  incident  of  his  life. 

"  *By  an  accusation  to  the  king  from  an  unrighteous  tongue,  my  soul  drew  near  even  unto  death, 
"  and  my  life  near  unto  the  hell  beneath.  They  compassed  me  on  every  side,  and  there  was  no 
"  man  to  help  me  5  I  looked  for  the  succour  of  men,  but  there  was  none." — Ecclesiasticus  li.  6 
and  7. 

"  They  said,  *  He  professeth  to  have  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  he  called  himself  the  child  of  the 
"  Lord.  He  was  made  to  reprove  our  thoughts :  he  is  grievous  unto  us  even  to  behold  3  for  hib 
"  life  is  not  like  other  men's, — his  ways  are  of  another  fashion.  We  are  esteemed  of  him  as 
"  counterfeits :  he  abstaineth  from  our  ways  as  from  filthiness :  he  pronounceth  the  end  of  the  just 
"  to  be  blessed,  and  maketh  his  boast  that  God  is  his  father.  Let  us  see  if  his  words  be  true ; 
"  and  let  us  prove  what  shall  happen  in  the  end  of  him  :  for  if  the  just  man  be  the  Son  of  God,  he 
"  will  help  him,  and  deliver  him  from  the  hand  of  his  enemies.  Let  us  examine  him  with  despite- 
"  fulness  and  torture,  that  we  may  know  his  meekness  and  prove  his  patience :  let  us  condemn 
"  him  with  a  shameful  death }  for  by  his  own  saying  he  shall  be  respected.*— Wisdom  ii.  13—20. 
"  *  Thou  art  my  defender  and  helper ;  thou  hast  preserved  my  body  from  destruction,  and  from  the 
"  snare  of  the  slanderous  tongue,  and  from  the  lips  that  forge  lies,  and  hast  been  my  helper  against 
"  my  adversaries  j  and  hast  delivered  me  from  the  teeth  of  them  that  were  ready  to  devour  me, 
"  and  out  of  the  hands  of  such  as  sought  after  my  life,  and  from  the  manifold  afflictions  which  I 
"  had, — from  the  depth  of  the  belly  of  hell,  from  an  unclean  tongue,  and  from  lying  words/— Ec- 
clesiasticus li.  2,  3,  5, 

"But  one  inference  is  possible :  there  cannot  have  been  two  Menechmi1  at  Jerusalem,  both 
"  named  Jesus  ;  both  born  of  a  virgin,  to  whom  a  miraculous  conception  was  imputed ;  both  edu- 
"  cated  in  the  temple  $  both  sent  into  Egypt  5  both  undertaking  a  mission  to  reform  the  Jewish 
"  church,  and  lecturing  to  that  effect  in  Solomon's  porch  $  both  claiming  to  be  the  Son  of  God  at 
"Jerusalem;  both  arraigned  for  blasphemy;  both  crucified ;  both  interred  5  and  both  reserved  for 
"  resurrection  from  the  sepulchre.  Yet  all  these  things  are  true  of  the  son  of  Sirach  by  his  own 
"  shewing."  But  there  were  two  Menechmi  at  Jerusalem.  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  were  nine 
or  ten  of  them.  They  were  all  Jesuses  or  Saviours. 


1  Construed  comforters    but  I  suspect  we  have  kere  the  Celtic  word  mannus  and  D3H  hkm,  man  of  wisdom,   I  think 
it  probable  that  the  word  has  had  both  meanings. 


BOOK  II.   CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  7-  125 

I  think  no  person  will  be  surprised  at  the  above,  or  will  have  any  difficulty,  who  recollects  the 
proofs  which  I  have  given  of  the  identity  of  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  systems ;  and  the  numerous 
immaculate  conceptions,  crucifixions,  and  resurrections,  of  the  Gods  of  the  Gentiles,  of  the  East 
and  West. l 

The  book  of  Ecclesiasticus,  or  the  wisdom  of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Sirach,  is  much  corrupted,  and  its 
parts  dislocated.  It  was  written  by  a  different  author  from  the  book  of  Wisdom.  As  we  might 
expect,  it  is  called  the  look  of  parables.11  The  translation  of  this  book  of  the  Romish  church  was 
not  made  by  Jerorn,  but  is  found  in  what  is  called  their  older  Vulgate,  but  by  whom  that  book  was 
made  they  do  not  know.  Jerom  says  he  saw  it  in  Hebrew.3  But  the  learned  Calmet  makes  a 
most  important  observation,  the  effect  of  which  he  does  not  see,  which  at  once  proves  that  the 
translation  is  much  older  than  the  Christian  sera.  He  observes,  that  the  translator  uses  obsolete 
words ;  thus  he  puts  honestas  for  riches,  honestm  for  a  rich  man,  respectus  or  visitatio  for  the 
punishment  of  God  on  wicked  men ;  supervacuitas  for  vanity  or  vain  glory;  animalia  supwvacua 
for  dangerous  or  noxious  animals.  When  I  consider  that  we  have  the  Mosaic  mythos  intermixed 
with  that  of  the  Gentiles  in  the  Sibyl,  which  contained  all  things  related  of  Jesus  Christ,— -that 
Clemens  let  out,  that  the  same  mythos4  was  to  be  found  in  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis,  and  many 
other  circumstances  described  in  the  preceding  parts  of  this  work— I  cannot  help  suspecting  that 
the  counterpart  of  the  crucified  person  described  by  Minutius,  is  to  be  found  in  these  two  works. 
It  is  a  very  important  fact,  that  the  whole  of  the  mythos  which  I  have  given  from  the  Monthly 
Magazine  is  taken  in  part  from  the  book  of  Ecclesiasticus,  and  in  part  from  that  of  the  Wisdom 
of  Solomon,  hereby  affording  a  high  probability,  that  the  whole  mythos  was  originally  in  each  of 
them  ;  but  that  it  has  been  destroyed,  or  at  least  so  much  mutilated  in  each  book  as  to  render  it 
in  each  case  unobservable  on  slight  inspection.  In  fact,  after  the  time  of  Christ,  it  would  be  dis- 
liked equally  by  Jews  and  Christians,  Of  course  the  Jews  have  not  these  books  in  their  Canon, 
because  they  have  no  books  in  their  Canon  after  Haggai,  who  lived  long  before  the  entrance  of  the 
sun  into  Pisces,  or  the  time  when  this  eighth  or  ninth  avatar  was  supposed  to  have  lived ;  but  the 
two  books  most  clearly  prove  that,  in  the  secret  history  of  the  Jews,  they  had  the  history  of  the 
crucified  Avatars  like  the  Gentiles,  and  that  it  was  their  secret  doctrine. 

I  now  beg  my  reader  to  look  back  to  the  Appendix  to  Volume  I.  p.  832,  and  to  observe  what  I 
have  said  respecting  the  Gospel  of  John,  found  in  the  vault  under  the  ancient  Jewish  temple*  I 
have  there  noticed  a  pillar  under  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  on  which  we  are  told,  by  Nicephorus 
Callistus,  that  the  Gospel  of  John  was  found,  to  Which  I  beg  my  reader  to  refer,  I  have  there 
said,  that  I  thought  nothing  was  more  likely  than  that  this  gospel  should  have  been  concealed 
there  from  a  time  long  anterior  to  the  Christian  sera.  Here  were  concealed,  in  the  temple,  the  lead- 
ing Gnostic  doctrines  as  displayed  by  me  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  first  volume,  and  the  history  of 
Jesus  the  son  of  Sirach,  which  we  have  just  read,  and  which  would  as  evidently  apply  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  Jesus  of  the  eighth  age,  as  to  the  Jesus  of  the  ninth  age,  The  Christians  have  evidently 
got  possession  of  this  book,  and  have  accommodated  it  to  the  history  of  Jesus,  the  Nazarite  of  Sa- 
maria. It  is  of  no  use  to  meet  this  by  shewing  parts  in  John's  gospel  which  would  not  apply  to  Jesus 
of  Sirach.  Mr,  JEvanson  has  proved,  (in  his  Dissonance  of  the  Gospels,)  that  this  Gospel  was 
never  written  by  perhoi»s  connected  with  Judaea,  and  that  it  is  full  of  interpolations,  almost  from 


1  Sec  Calmet's  Diet,  on  the  word  WISDOM,  for  some  information  on  this  subject.    This  reminds  me  of  the  account 
in  Enoch  of  the  Elect  one  shin,  noticed  in  Volume  I.  p.  549. 
*  Eees's  Ency.  3  Ibid.  *  Vide  Appendix  to  Vol.  I.  p.  838. 


JEWISH  INCARNATION*. 


one  end  to  the  other.    It  was  accommodated  to  uhat  was  wanted,  though  in  some  respects  awk- 
wardly enough;  for  the  firbl  chapter  betrays  the  Gnosis  and  Cabala  in  every  line.1 

Perhaps  I  shall  be  told,  that  the  story  of  the  book  of  John  having  been  found  in  the  crypt  of  the 
ancient  temple  is  a  forgery  of  the  Papists'.  Protestant  devotees  easily  dispose  of  unpleasant  facts, 
and  blind  themselves  b}  such  kind  of  assertions  5  and  undoubtedly  their  brother  Paulites  of  Rome 
have  given  them  plausible  grounds  enow  for  them.  But  it  must  be  asked,  in  this  case,  Why  the 
Christians,  after  the  time  of  Con&tantinea  should  wish  to  teach  that  the  Jews  concealed  the  Gospel 
of  John,  in  so  solemn  a  manner,  in  this  the  most  sacred  place  of  their  temple  ?  Here  I  am  quite 
certain,  if  persons  would  put  aside  their  vulgar  piejudices  they  would  see,  that  there  is  a  high 
piobability  that  the  story  of  Nicephorus,  as  far  as  the  finding  of  the  book  goes,  is  true,  and  that 
all  the  remainder  of  his  story  is  made  up  to  accommodate  the  fact  to  his  gospel  history  or  Chris- 
tian faith,  I  believe  it  is  maintained  both  by  the  Papist  and  Protestant  churches,  that  the 
gospel  history  of  John  was  not  written  till  after  the  burning  of  the  temple.  But  whether  written 
before  or  after  that  event,  who  should  put  it  into  the  Jewish  crypt  ?  It  was  directly  against  the 
interest  of  the  Christians  to  have  put  it  there,  as  well  as  against  that  of  the  Jews,  unless  it  formed 
a  part,  as  I  have  suggested,  of  the  Jewish  secret  Cabala.  Supposing  the  Gospel  of  John  to  have 
been  put  into  the  crypt  by  the  Jews,  what  could  have  been  their  object?  If  they  believed  the 
book,  they  were  instantly  Christians.  If  they  did  not,  they  must  have  detested  and  not  venerated 
it.  All  Christians  hold  that  from  long  before  the  time  of  the  writing  of  John,  the  gospel  histories 
of  the  other  three  evangelists  had  been  written,  and  universally  dispersed  in  the  world,  and  that 
the  book  of  John  had  been  in  like  manner  dispersed  from  the  time  it  was  composed. 

The  books  of  Ecclesiastieus  and  Wisdom  most  clearly  prove,  that  the  Jews  had  the  mythos,  and 
that  it  was  a  secret  also.  All  this  tends  wonderfully  to  support  the  whole  of  the  theory  of  the 
becret  doctrineb  and  mythos  which  I  have  been  unfolding. 

Suppose  it  a  pure,  unadulterated  lie  of  Callifatus*  :  for  what  object  did  he  lie  ?  People  seldom  lie 
without  some  object.  It  could  add  no  credibility  to  the  genuineness  of  this  book,  written,  as  every 
one  mu&t  know,  in  that  day,  if  it  were  the  fact,  long  after  the  destruction  of  the  detested  temple. 
It  is  very  improbable,  given  as  that  age  was  to  lying,  that  Callistus  should  risk  so  absurd  and  so 
unnecessary  a  lie.  The  probability  is,  on  the  evidence,  that  the  story  is  true,  and  that  all  the 
appendages  told  about  the  temple  by  Callistus,  are  awkward  lies  to  endeavour  to  account  for  this 
disagreeable,  and,  to  him  probably,  unaccountable  fact. 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  book  found  and  called  the  Gospel  of  John  would  be,  word  for 
word,  the  same  as  that  which  we  have  j  a  loose  and  general  resemblance  would  be  quite  sufficient 
to  cause  and  to  justify  the  assertion  of  Callistus.  The  whole,  in  a  very  striking  manner,  supports 
and  justifies  what  I  have  said  in  Volume  I.  p,  198,  respecting  the  Jewish  incarnations  ;  and  it  also 
supports,  in  a  striking  manner,  the  doctrine  which  I  have  held,  that  the  JfpijS-tiau  mythos  was  the 
secret  mystery  of  Eleusis,  Delphi,  and,  indeed,  of  ail  nations* 

Tbe  observations  of  the  learned  Calruet  that  the  Latin  language,  into  which  the  books  of  Eccie- 
siasticus and  Wisdom  are  translated,  was  obsolete,  is  very  important,  as  tending  to  shew,  that  the 
doctrine  of  a  crucified  God  existed  in  Italy  from  a  time  long  anterior  to  the  Christian  aera.  * 


1  I  refer  those  persons,  who  cannot  reconcile  their  minds  to  the  dearth  of  information  in  the  Jewish  books  respect- 
ing the  diffeient  avatars,  to  Mr.  Whiston's  Emy  on  the  True  Teat  of  the  Old  Testament,  for  a  decisive  proof  that 
these  books  have  been  very  gieatly  corrupted  since  the  Christian  sera,  and  coirupted,  too,  for  the  express  purpose  of 
concealing'  every  thing  respecting  our  Messiah  or  any  Messiah  or  dvatar.  I  have  on  another  occasion  praised  the  Jews 
for  not  corrupting  their  books ;  more  inquiiy  has  proved  to  me,  that  my  praise  was  very  unmerited. 


BOOK  II.    CHAPTER  III0    SECTION  8.  127 

I  must  now  beg  my  reader  to  review  all  the  different  accounts  of  the  mythos  which  he  has  seen 
in  all  quarters  of  the  world— lastly,  taking  that  of  Tibet,  the  part  of  the  world  whence  the  loudi 
came,  and  let  him  consider  all  the  proofs  of  the  identity  between  it  and  Rome— the  same  monks 
and  monasteries,  nuns  and  nunneries,  by  the  same  names  of  Beguines,  (Romish  monks  and  Beguine 
nuns,  as  it  will  be  said,  founded  by  Nestorians,)  the  same  tria  vota  constantialia,  the  same  tonsures 
and  dresses,  the  three  sacraments  of  orders,  eucharist,  and  baptism,  and  many  other  things, — and 
I  think  he  will  at  once  be  obliged  to  allow,  that  there  are  in  both  the  remains  of  the  same  mythos 
which  I  have  been  describing.  In  Rome,  in  its  rites  and  ceremonies,  it  remains  almost  perfect, 
and  in  Tibet  nearly  the  same. 

8.  I  now  request  my  reader  to  turn  to  the  history  of  Pythagoras,  given  in  Volume  I.  pp.  150, 
151,  and  to  consider  carefully  all  the  particulars  enumerated  respecting  him,  as  they  so  remarkably 
coincide  with  the  gospel  history  of  Jesus  Christ  $  then  to  p.  168 ;  then  to  p.  210,  and  observe  the 
close  connexions  of  the  Indian  avatars  and  the  date  of  Pythagoras  \  and,  lastly,  to  pp.  95,  96,  of 
this  book,  and  I  am  quite  certain  he  must  admit  the  identity  of  the  two  mythoses,  histories,  para- 
bles, or  whatever  he  may  choose  to  call  them,  of  Jesus  and  Pythagoras.  Mr.  Kuster,  Dr.  John 
Jones,  and  other  devotees,  have  endeavoured  to  disguise  to  themselves  the  fact,  by  assuming  that 
Porphyry,  Jainblieus,  and  others,  who  have  written  respecting  Pythagoras,  have  copied  the  life  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  order  to  run  down  the  Christians  :  but  unfortunately  for  these  writers  their  fine- 
spun web  is  at  once  broken  to  pieces  by  the  observation  of  honest  old  Maurice,  that  the  most  im- 
portant facts  are  taken  from  the  works  of  authors  who  lived  before  the  Christian  sera* 

Now  I  contend  that,  when  all  the  peculiar  circumstances  are  taken  into  consideration,  there  is  a 
high  probability  that  in  the  man  crucified  of  Minutius,  we  have  Pythagoras ;  and  that  the  Chris- 
tians, from  whom  we  receive  all  our  books,  have  suppressed  the  history  of  the  crucifixion,  and 
inserted  in  the  place  of  it  the  story,  that  Pythagoras  was  burnt  in  his  house  by  the  populace.  We 
must  not  forget  that  he  established  his  school  at  Cortona,  which  I  have  shewn,  in  Volume  I.  p.  787, 
was  the  same  as  Cristona,  and  that  we  learn  from  Jerom,  that  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  names 
borne  by  the  Christians,  was  the  same  as  that  of  South  India,  Crestons,— of  India,  whence  we  have 
seen  the  Camasene,  the  Loretto,  the  Pallatini,  the  Saturnia,  &c.,  &c.,  came  to  Italy. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  wisdom  is  a  quality  of  man  which  can  never  be  desired  too  much,  or 
appreciated  too  highly.  An  idle  attempt  has  been  made  to  divide  what  is  called  the  wisdom  of 
man  from  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  man  has  been  called  foolishness.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  say  to  this,  that  if  it  be  foolishness,  it  is  not  wisdom.  Nothing  can  be  wisdom,  that 
is,  really  toisdom,  which  does  not  include  within  it  every  thing  necessary  to  man's  WELFARE  in  the 
most  extensive  sense  of  the  word,— welfare  here  and  hereafter.  Hence  it  is  very  apparent  that 
man  can  only  approximate  to  a  state  of  wisdom.  From  this  beautiful  and  refined  view  of  the  sub- 
ject has  arisen  the  idea  that  this  godlike  quality,  in  fact,  well  dqperring  to  be  classed  among  the 
Divine  attributes,  was  incarnated  in  some  degree  in  every  human  being.  This  gives  us  the  expla- 
nation of  the  Hindoo  assertion,  that  there  have  been  hundreds  of  thousands  of  incarnations. 
Whenever  we  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  doctrines  of  these  people,  we  are  sure  to  find  that  they,  the 
sages  of  old,  possessed  no  small  or  common  share  of  the  quality  we  here  treat  of.  l 

But  though,  on  a  superficial  consideration  of  this  subject,  we  may  be  led  to  assign  this  attribute 

1  Probably  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece  were  the  Genii  or  divine  incarnations  of  Wisdom  or  the  Logos  of  the  seven 
cycles,  misunderstood  by  the  Greeks,  which  had  preceded  the  times  of  the  authors  who  lived  in  the  cycle  preceding 
the  Christian  sera,  which  made  the  eighth  before  Christ.  Of  the  person  who  was  the  Hero  of  that  age,  of  course  they 
could  not  speak  with  certainty.  Perhaps  they  sought  him  in  Alexander  the  Great 


328  _  JEWISH   INCARNATION. 

to  the  Supreme  Being,  yet  the  profound  sages  of  India,  the  Pythagorases  of  the  East,  did  not  dare 
to  assign  it  to  the  Supreme  as  an  attribute  or  quality ;  but  they  assigned  it,  in  the  only  way  they 
could  do  so,  viz*  by  way  of  an  emanation,  from  the  Supreme  to  the  Trimurti  or  Trinity,  If  it  be 
aaid  by  objectors,  that  the  Supreme,  the  Tlaryp  ayj/a>s"0£,  could  not  cause  it  to  emanate  from  him, 
if  he  had  it  not ;  the  reply  is,  that  substance  and  all  matter  are,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  these 
objectors,  in  the  same  predicament ;  and  here  we  arrive  again  at  the  true  meaning  of  the  illusion. 
How  can  WE  know  what  are  the  attributes  of  the  To  Oi> — of  the  Haryp  aymw,  how  vain  and 
monstrous  to  attribute  to  Him  any  thing  of  which  we  have  only  received  a  knowledge  through  the 
fallible  medium  of  OUR  senses!  All  above  the  Trimurti  is  illusion,  as  is  indeed  the  Trimurti  itself, 
It  is  impossible  to  conceive  a  word  more  appropriate.  It  is  the  Maia;  it  is  the  Brahme-Maia. 

I  now  beg  my  learned  reader  to  bear  this  in  rnind,  and  then  to  turn  to  his  Cruden's  Concordance 
and  read  the  texts  which  he  will  find  there  under  the  head  of  Wisdom.  My  unlearned  reader,  not 
used  to  consult  Cruden,  if  any  such  should  ever  dip  into  this  passage  of  my  work,  may  consult  the 
Apocryphal  books  of  Wisdom  and  Ecclesiasticus  ;  and,  lastly,  he  may  consult  the  book  of  Ayub 
or  Job,  *  brought  from  Upper  India  to  Arabia ;  from  which  beautiful  and  sublime  allegory,  if  he 
understand  it,  he  may  really  learn  Wisdom, — a  wisdom  more  precious,  indeed,  than  the  compass 
to  the  manner,  2  — wisdom,  indeed,  above  all  price — the  wisdom  of  patience  and  submission  to  the 
Divine  decree — an  humble  resignation  and  contentment  with  our  lot,  and  a  firm  reliance  on  the 
goodness  of  the  Supreme  Creator,  as  designing  ultimately,  although  perhaps  through  temporary 
misery,  to  bring  us  to  eternal  happiness. 3 

Whenever  the  Holy  Ghost  was  described  as  given  to  man,  it  was  in  the  form  of  fire,  if  visible  to 
the  eye.  Its  effects  always  were,  wisdom  accompanied  by  power ;  but  the  power  was  never  sup- 
posed to  exist  independently  of  the  wisdom.  This  wisdom  was  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  we  have  seen, 
and  whenever  we  closely  analyse  this,  we  always  find  the  igneous  principle  at  the  bottom.  Is  it, 
then,  a  wonder,  that  we  find  the  ancient  Indian,  Chaldean,  or  Collidean  loudi,  and  the  Persians, 
in  the  earliest  and  most  uncorrupted  state  of  their  religion,  offering  their  adoration  to  the  solar 
fire,  either  as  the  emblem  of  the  creative  wisdom  and  power,  or  as  the  Wisdom  and  Power  itself  ? 
Is  it  not  surprising  that  the  popes,  in  their  anxiety  to  support  this  doctrine,  should  have  yielded  to 
the  popular  wish  in  adopting  the  rites  and  ceremonies  with  which  the  ancient  system,  in  fact  the 
system  of  the  real  yva>ri$,  was  always  accompanied  ? 

To  understand  perfectly  all  the  beauties  of  the  doctrine  of  Wisdom,  much  and  profound  medita- 
tion on  the  word  is  necessary.  It  must  be  considered  in  all  its  bearings,  which  are  almost  in- 
numerable. 


1  The  least  attention  to  the  names  of  $ie  actors  in  Genesis  and  Job  will  shew  that  they  are  parts  of  the  same  raythos, 
8  Job  xxviii  18:  "For  the  price  of  wisdom  is  above  rubies"  This  ought  to  be  rendered,  For  the  price  of  wisdom  i& 
above  the  loadstone  or  magnets,  (see  CELTIC  DRUIDS,  p,  113,)  and,  consequently,  above  the  mariner's  compass,  well 
known  to  the  ancients.  But  how  beautiful  is  the  simile  of  the  magnet  or  loadstone  to  the  Supreme  and  to  wisdom  — 
causing  to  emanate  and  its  invisible  power  or  influence  to  draw  to  it  the  iron — and,  again,  pointing  at  its  pleasure  to 
its  favourite  north— where  it  **  sits  in  the  sides  of  the  north,"  guiding  amidst  the  dangerous  shoals  and  quicksands  the 
benighted  mariner '  All  this,  and  much  more,  is  lost  in  the  nonsensical  rubies. 

3  Jf  we  consider  the  Chaklce  language  of  South  and  North  India  to  be  the  hame,  and  that  language  to  be  the  origin 
of  theTamul,  ive  shall  have  no  difficulty  in  thinking  it  probable  that  the  principal  actor  in  the  book  of  Job,  Eliphaz 
the  Teman-ite  or  Tm-an-ite,  was  a  Tamulite;  the  syllable  an  in  Te-man  being  only  the  terminating  en,  which  we  know 
was  a  peculiarity  of  this  language.  We  must  not  forget  the  Tamul  Kaliowakim,  which  can,  in  fact,  be  called  nothing 
but  a  book  of  wisdom,  if  the  book  in  our  canon  deserves  the  name.  The  Persians  had  their  book  of  Soplii  or  Wisdom; 
so  had  the  Jews;  and  so  had  the  Tarns— no  doubt  iviitten  in  their  alphabet  of  sixteen  letters  See  Jeremiah  xlix,  7. 
The  Goddess  Cali  uas  from  the  Greek  Katof  beautiful,  and  the  Latin  Calleo  and  Callidus,  a  cunning  or  wise  person. 


BOOK  II,    CHAPTER  III.   SECTION  9.  129 

9.  If  we  turn  our  minds  back  to  what  we  have  seen,  we  shall  find  with  the  Romish  church 
every  rite  of  Paganism ;  every  thing  which  has  been  disguised  by  being  charged  to  the  Gnostics  is 
found  there,  without  a  single  exception.  Irenaeus  was  evidently  a  Gnostic.  If  he  were  not,  how 
came  he  to  place  the  Zodiac  on  the  floor  of  his  church  ?  a  part  of  which,  not  worn  away  by  the 
feet  of  devotees,  is  yet  remaining.  He  was  of  the  sect  of  the  Christ  not  crucified.  How  is  all 
this  to  be  accounted  for,  except  that  what  the  first  Christian  fathers  all  taught  was  true,  namely, 
that  there  was  an  esoteric  and  an  exoteric  religion  ?  A  great  part  of  what  I  have  unfolded,  indeed 
almost  the  whole  of  it,  applies  to  the  Gnostics ;  that  is,  to  the  Jesus  described  by  the  disputed 
chapters  of  Matthew  and  Luke— to  Jesus  of  Bethlehem.  St.  Paul  preaches,  in  a  very  pointed 
manner,  Christ  crucified  ;  this  was  in  opposition  to  the  Chiist  not  crucified  of  the  Gnostics ;  and, 
in  later  times,  of  the  Manichaeans  and  Mohamedans.  Gnosticism  was  the  seciet  religion  of  the 
conclave.  They  had  Jesus  of  Bethlehem  for  the  people,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  for  the  conclave  and 
the  cardinals.  For  the  people,  they  had  and  have  Jesus  crucified;  for  the  conclave,  Jesub  not 
crucified.  This  will  appear  to  many  persons  at  first  absolutely  incredible.  Most  fortunately  the 
church  has  been  guilty  of  the  oversight  of  letting  the  passage  of  lienseus  escape.  One  of  the 
earliest,  most  celebrated,  most  respected,  and  most  quoted  authority  of  its  ancient  bishops,  saints, 
and,  martyrs,  tells  us  in  distinct  words,  that  Jesus  was  not  crucified  under  Herod  and  Pontius 
Pilate,  but  that  he  lived  to  be  turned  fifty  years  of  age.  This  negatives  the  whole  story  of  Herod 
and  Pontius  Pilate.  This  he  tells  us  on  the  authority  of  his  master  St.  Polycarp,  also  a  martyr, 
who  had  it  from  St.  John  himself,  and  from  all  the  old  people  of  Asia,  It  will,  perhaps,  be  said, 
that  Irenaeus  was  a  weak  old  man.  He  was  not  always  old,  and  he  must  have  heard  this  when 
young,  under  his  master  Polycarp,  and  have  retained  the  knowledge  of  it  during  his  whole  life, 
and  thus  must  have  had  plenty  of  time  to  inquire  into  the  truth  of  what  he  had  heard;  and, 
weak  or  not,  he  was  a  competent  witness  to  the  dry  matter  of  fact,  viz.  that  he  was  told  it  by  St. 
Polycarp  and  the  elders  of  Asia. 

The  escape  of  this  passage  from  the  destroyers  can  be  accounted  for  only  in  the  same  way  as 
the  passage  of  Minutius  Felix.  Two  passages  escaped,  among,  probably,  thousands  destroyed, 
of  which  we  know  nothing,  under  the  decrees  of  the  Emperors,  yet  remaining,  by  which  they  were,* 
ordered  to  be  destroyed. 

We  have  seen  great  numbers  of  remains  of  the  mythos  of  the  different  incarnations  of  the  Budd- 
haSj  Cristnas,  Salivahanas,  &c.,  in  India,  recurring  again  and  again  in  each  cycle,  as  foretold  by 
the  Cumaean  and  Erythraean  Sibyl,  before  the  time  of  Christ.  We  have  seen  all  the  things  which 
happened  to  the  Xps*$ro£  foretold  before  his  birth.  We  have  seen  that  the  mythos  of  the  crucifix 
was  common  to  all  nations,  before  the  time  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  from  Thule  to  China.  When- 
ever our  travellers  in  India  found  any  nations  holding  the  doctrines  of  this  universal  mythos,  the 
history  of  Adonis  or  Tammuz,  which,  of  course,  though  substantially  the  same,  vary  in  the  detail, 
they  instantly  determined  them  to  be  corrupted  Christians.  A  similar  effect  took  place  in  Italy. 
The  ancient  proofs  of  this  mythos  were  either  destroyed  as  corruptions,  or  adopted :  the  latter  was 
the  case  in  vast  numbers  of  very  ancient  crucifixes  and  paintings  of  the  Bambino,  on  which  may 
be  seen  the  words  Deo  Soli.  Now  these  two  words  can  never  apply  to  Jesus  Christ.  He  wab 
not  Deus  Solus  in  any  sense,  according  to  the  idiom  of  the  Latin  language  and  the  Romish  faith. 
Whether  we  construe  the  words  to  the  only  God,  or  to  God  alone,  they  are  equally  heretical.  No 
priest  in  any  age  of  the  church  would  have  thought  of  putting  them  there.  But  finding  them 
there,  they  tolerated  them.  Without  examination  they  took  for  granted  that  they  could  apply  to 
no  one  but  their  God,  and  endeavoured  to  explain  away  their  Unitarian  meaning  as  well  as  they 
were  able.  These  considerations  most  satisfactorily  account  for  the  disappearance  of  the  heathen 

VOL.  H.  S 


130  OBSERVATIONS. 

crucifix  In  Italy,  India,  and  Britain.    Where  it  was  not  destroyed  it  was  adopted.    The  passage  of 
Minutius  Felix  places  its  existence  out  of  reasonable  doubt. 

Upon  the  fire  tower  at  Brechin,  described  in  my  CELTIC  DRUIDS,  pp.  xlvi.,  xlvii.,  plate  24,  we  have 
the  man  crucified  and  the  Lamb  and  Elephant.  As  I  have  said  there,  I  thought  these  completely 
proved  the  modern  date  of  the  tower,  but  I  now  doubt  this  \  for  we  have,  over  and  over  again,  seen 
the  crucified  man  before  Christ.  We  have  also  found  "  the  Lamb  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of 
the  world"  among  the  Carnutes  of  Gaul,  before  the  time  of  Christ.  And  when  I  couple  these  and 
the  Elephant,  or  Ganesa,  and  the  ring,  and  its  cobra,  Linga,  lona,  and  Nandies,  found  not  far  from 
the  tower  on  the  estate  of  Lord  Castles,  with  the  Colidei,  the  Island  of  lona  and  li,  and  the  Hebrew 
names,  &c.,  found  in  Wales,  I  am  induced  to  doubt  my  former  conclusion.  The  Elephant,  the 
Ganesa  of  India,  is  a  very  stubborn  fellow  to  be  found  here.  The  ring,  too?  when  joined  with  the 
other  matters,  I  cannot  get  over.  All  thebe  superstitions  must  have  come  from  India  whilst  the 
Hebrew,  that  is,  Celtic  language,  was  in  use. 

That  the  ideas  of  the  Trinitarian  character  of  the  Deity  should  be  taken  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
ancient  philosophers,  will  surprise  no  one  who  considers  how  much  they  are  praised  by  the  most  re- 
spectable of  the  Christian  fathers— I  speak  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Justin,  Ammonius  Saccas, 
Origen,&c.  Clemens  expressly  says,  that  the  rudiments  of  celestial  wisdom,  taught  by  Christ,  may  be 
found  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Greeks ;  this  is  Esoteric  Christianity.  And  Justin  says,  that  Socrates 
was  a  Christian,  and  that,  before  the  advent  of  Jesus  Christ,  philosophy  was  the  way  to  eternal  life. 
He  calls  it  Msy/g-ov  «r^/xa,  "a  thing  raost  acceptable  ia  the  sight  of  God,  and  the  only  sure 
guide  to  a  state  of  perfect  felicity,"  The  opinion  of  the  early  fathers  on  this  subject  may  be  seen 
at  length  in  Vol.  II.  of  Vidal's  translation  of  the  Commentaries  of  Mosheim,  note,  p.  114, 

The  division  of  the  secret  Christian  religion  into  three  degrees,  the  same  as  the  division  at 
Eleusis,  namely,  Purification,  Initiation,  and  Perfection,  described  in  my  first  Volume,  p.  822,  is 
of  itself  sufficient  under  the  circumstances  to  prove  the  secret  religions  of  the  Christians  and 
Gentiles  to  be  the  same. 

In  Mosheim's  Commentaries,  Cent.  II.,  may  be  found  almost  innumerable  proofs,  that  a  double 
meaning  was  universally,  or  very  nearly  universally,  acknowledged  to  be  contained  in  the  gospel 
histories,  until  after  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  But  it  is  Mosheim's  object  to  represent 
this  as  an  innovation,  introduced  about  that  time  $  he  therefore  very  skilfully  assumes  that  no 
Christian  writers  before  the  time  of  Justin  held  this  doctrine,  though  he  is  obliged  to  admit  that  it 
was  held  by  Philo  and  the  Jews.  Mosheim  must  have  well  known,  that  the  double  meaning  was 
held  by  all  authors  whom  we  possess  before  the  year  150,  as  well  as,  I  believe,  by  all  after  it,  for 
many  years.  I  challenge  any  polemic  to  produce  to  me  the  undisputed  work  of  any  author  before 
that  year,  in  which  it  is  not  expressly  supported.  But  I  object  to  pretended  quotations  from  the 
works  of  the  ancients  by  Patilites.  If  the  reader  will  peruse  Mosheim's  Commentaries,  keeping  in 
mind  that  his  object  is  to  represent  the  Arcani  disciplines,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  that  more  secret  and 
sublime  theology  styled  ly  Clement  of  Alexandria  yva)(ri$,  as  a  new  doctrine,  he  must,  I  am  certain, 
be  obliged  to  see  that  Mosheim  most  abundantly,  but  unwillingly  proves,  that  it  was  the  received 
doctrine  from  the  beginning,  and  no  new  thing.  In  fact,  the  literal  exposition  was  not  adopted  by 
the  higher  classes  of  society,  till  all  classes  were  equally  degraded  in  intellect;  then  the  literal 
meaning  of  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  was,  for  the  first  time,  received  by  the  higher 
ranks ;  and  the  existence  of  a  secret  doctrine  began  to  be  denied. 

The  favourite  objects  with  Ammonius,  as  appear  from'the  disputations  and  writings  of  his  dis- 
ciples, which  I  stated  in  Volume  I.  pp.  824,  825,  were  those  of  not  only  bringing  about  a  reconci- 
liation between  all  the  different  philosophic  sects,  Greeks  as  well  as  barbarians,  but  also  of  pro- 


OBSERVATIONS.  131 

ducing  a  harmony  of  all  religions,  even  of  Christianity  and  Heathenism,  and  of  prevailing  on 
all  the  wise  and  good  men  of  every  nation  to  lay  aside  their  contentions  and  quarrels,  and  to  unite 
together  as  one  large  family,  the  children  of  one  common  mother.    With  a  view  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  these  ends,  therefore,  he  maintained,  that  divine  wisdom  had  been  first  brought  to 
light  and  nurtured  among  the  people  of  the  East  by  Hermes,  Zoroaster,  and  other  great  and  sacred 
characters ;  that  it  was  warmly  espoused  and  cherished  by  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  among  the 
Greeks;  from  whom,  although  the  other  Grecian  sages  might  appear  to  have  dissented,  yet  that 
with  nothing  more  than  the  exercise  of  an  ordinary  degree  of  judgment  and  attention,  it  was  very 
possible  to  make  this  discordance  entirely  vanish,  and  shew  that  the  only  points  on  which  these 
eminent  characters  differed  were  but  of  trifling  moment,  and  that  it  was  chiefly  in  their  manner  of 
expressing  their  sentiments  that  they  varied. l      Surely  nothing  could  be  more  desirable  than  the 
objects  aimed  at  by  Ammonius,  or  more  deserving  of  the  exertions  of  a  good  man. 

Amidst  all  the  confusion  of  sects,  two  leading  doctrines  may  be  perceived — that  of  those  who 
held  the  literal  meaning,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Paul  5  and  that  of  those  who  held  the  allegori- 
cal or  learned,  of  which  were  Pantsenus,  Clemens,  Origen,  Justin,  Philo,  and  Plato. 

In  reply  to  these  observations  I  shall  have  some  foolish  explanations  pointed  out  to  me,  given 
by  or  attributed  to  Clemens,  Origen,  &c.,  of  the  allegories.  This  mode  of  treating  the  subject 
may  serve  to  blind  readers  of  little  thought,  but  can  never  change  the  facts,  either  that  allegory, 
i.  e.  parabolic  reasoning,  was  meant,  or  that  it  was  attributed  to  these  writings  by  the  first  Chris- 
tians, The  foolishness  of  the  explanations  (probably  only  given  as  a  matter  of  state  policy)  may 
be  fairly  urged  against  admitting  allegory,  but  against  the  fact  that  the  writings  were  intended  to 
be  allegorical,  it  can  never  be  urged. 

The  more  I  reflect  upon  Gnosticism,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  in  it  we  have,  in  fact,  the 
real  science  of  antiquity — fora  long  time  almost  lost — but,  I  trust,  by  means  of  our  oriental  dis- 
coveries, yet  to  be  recovered.  Perhaps,  from  being  placed  in  a  situation  to  take  a  bird's  eye  view 
of  its  various  departments,  we  may  be  better  qualified  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  it  than  any  of 
our  predecessors  for  some  thousands  of  years  past.  In  order  to  do  this,  we  must,  I  think,  divest 
our  minds  of  the  respect  with  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  early  Christian 
authorities,  and  to  consider  them  as  in  reality  no  better  guides  than  we  consider  the  leaders  of  our 
sects  of  Ranters,  Jumpers,  and  genuine  Calvinists  5  and,  I  apprehend,  though  a  Wilberforce  and  a 
Halhed  may  sometimes  be  found  in  modern,  as  an  Origen  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus  were  in 
ancient  times,  yet  no  philosopher  will  think  of  placing  even  those  persons  in  the  same  grade  of 
intellect  with  the  learned  and  profound  Locke,  or  the  unlearned  glove-maker  of  Salisbury, 2  or  the 
printer  of  America. 

Ammonius  Saccas,  the  greatest  of  the  early  fathers,  held  Jesus  Christ  in  veneration,  as  a  person 
of  a  divine  character  and  a  teacher  of  celestial  wisdom. 3  It  was  not  till  after  the  time  of  Justin 
Martyr  that  the  Paulites  of  Rome  began  to  prevail  against  the  philosophers  of  Alexandria,  where, 
in  its  catechetical  school,  the  original  Cftmtianity  was  taught ;  and  from  the  hands  of  such  men 
as  Plato,  Philo,  Pantsenus,  and  Ammonius,  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  such  men  as  Calvin,  Brothers, 
Wilberforce,  and  Halhed ;  and  the  consequence  was,  that  instead  of  a  religion  of  refined  philosophy 
and  WISDOM,  it  became  a  religion  of  monks  and  devil-drivers,  whose  object,  by  the  destruction  of 
books  and  their  authors,  was  to  get  the  upper  hand  of  those  they  could  not  refute,  and  to  reduce 
all  mankind  to  their  own  level.  With  these  people,  the  popes,  who  were  equally  desirous  of 
power,  formed  an  alliance,  and,  to  conceal  this,  fabricated  the  Acts  of  the  of  the  Apostles,  the 


1  Mosheim's  Comm.  Cent,  it  p.  132.  *  Thomas  Clwbb.  a  Mobheim's  Comm.  ut  sup.  p.  127. 

S  '2 


J32  OBSlvRVATIONS. 

Latin  character  of  which  is  visible  in  every  page :  for  a  proof  of  this,  Mr.  Evanson's  Dissonance  01 
the  Gospels  may  be  consulted. 

The  sect  of  early  Christians,  the  lowest  in  intellect  of  all,  having,  with  the  assistance  of  an  un- 
principled conqueror,  obtained  possession  of  the  supreme  authority,  did  precisely  what  the  follow- 
ers of  Cranmer,  the  Ranters,  and  the  Calvinists,  would  do  at  this  day  if  they  had  the  power,— 
they  destroyed  all  their  superiors  in  science,  and  burnt  their  books)  and  we,  following  after  them, 
being  in  fact  their  children,  inherit  their  confined  and  mistaken  views.  Our  minds,  by  the  vicious- 
ness  of  our  education,  are  unable  to  form  a  correct  estimate  of  our  own  feebleness ;  and  until  we 
are  convinced  of  this  truth,  we  shall  in  vain  endeavour  to  search  after  the  lost  science  of  antiquity, 
I  have  found  the  difficulty  of  unlearning  the  false  learning  of  my  youth,  much  greater  than  that  of 
acquiring  the  real  learning  which  1  possess.  Very  truly  has  Thomas  Burnet  said,  SAPIENTIA 

PRIMA    EST,    STULTITIA    CARUISSE   l 

M.  Matter  has  observed,  that,  in  real  knowledge,  we  are  very  little  in  advance  of  the  ancients 
on  that  kind  of  subjects  on  which  we  treat ;  that,  though  we  are  very  verbose  upon  many  which 
are  of  a  trifling  and  unmeaning  import,  upon  great  ones  we  are  silent.2  For  an  instance  of 
what  I  mean,  I  ask,  Whence  comes  the  soul,  and  whither  goes  it  ?  How  is  it  combined  with 
matter,  and  how  is  their  reparation  effected  ?  The  observation  of  M.  Matter  is  very  just.  For- 
tunately, perhaps,  for  me,  the  discussion  of  these  points  is  riot  in  my  plan;  I  have  only  to  notice 
the  history  of  the  attempts  to  remove  the  difficulties  with  which,  in  all  ages,  they  have  been  sur- 
rounded :  and,  I  think,  whether  true  or  false,  the  candid  reader  will  allow,  that  the  system  of  the 
oriental  GNOSIS  was,  as  I  have  called  it,  beautiful  and  sublime. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  my  work,  it  has  been  my  sedulous  wish  to  conduct  my  abstruse  inveb- 
tigations  with  the  strictest  impartiality,  and  never  to  flinch  from  a  consideration  of  imaginary 
injury  to  religion  3  for,  if  religion  be  false,  the  sooner  it  is  destroyed  the  better ;  but  if  it  be  true, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  veritas  2wcevalebit,  and  that  it  is  very  well  able  to  take  care  of  itself. 
But  I  will  not  deny,  that  when  I  meet  with  any  theory  which  takes  religion  out  of  my  way,  and 
leaves  to  me  the  free  investigation  of  the  records  of  antiquity,  I  receive  great  pleasure  5  for  my 
object  is  not  to  attack  religion  :  my  object  has  been  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  innumerable  facts 
or  effects  which  have  hitherto  baffled  the  efforts  of  the  most  industrious  and  learned  inquirers. 
Such  is  the  observation  made  by  the  learned  Parkhurst  on  the  subject  of  Hercules  and  Adonis,3 
that  they  are  symbols  or  types  of  what  a  future  Saviour  was  to  do  and  suffer.  It  must  be  obvious, 
on  a  moment's  consideration,  that  all  the  histories  of  the  births,  deaths,  resurrections,  &c.,  of  the 
different  Gods,  may  be  easily  accounted  for  in  the  same  manner ;  and  if  this  be  granted,  it  is 
equally  obvious,  that  the  nearer  they  are  to  the  history  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  more  complete  sym- 
bols they  become 5  and  thus  the  development  of  the  ancient  histories,  to  those  who  admit  the  doc- 
trine of  symbols,  becomes  a  handmaid  instead  of  an  opponent  to  the  religion. 

I  am  well  aware  that  the  doctrine  of  Mr,  Parkhurst  comes  with  but  an  ill  grace  from  priests } 
who  have  never  ceased  to  suppress  information}  and  that  the  time  of  the  discovery  by  Mr.  Park- 
hurst is  very  suspicious.  But  notwithstanding  this  very  awkward  circumstance,  I  beg  my  philo- 
sophic reader  to  recollect,  that  the  want  of  principle  or  the  want  of  sense  in  priests  cannot  in  fact 
change  the  nature  of  truth,  and  that  it  is  very  uuphilosophical  to  permit  such  want  of  principle  or 
want  of  sense  to  influence  the  mind  in  his  philosophical  inquiries. 


1  See  the  passage  quoted,  in  Vol.  I  p.  29.    Ed. 

*  That  may  be  very  justly  said  of  us  which  Sallust  said  of  the  Roman  Senate,  Satis  eloquently  sapientia  parttm, 

3  In  voce  ttf  on  V.  pp.  520,  &c. 


OBSERVATION'S.  133 

Oil  the  reasonableness  of  Mr.  Parkhurst's  doctrine  I  shall  give  no  opinion :  to  some  persons  it 
will  be  satisfactory,  to  others  it  will  not  be  so.  But,  as  the  opinion  of  our  church,  I  have  a  right 
to  take  it.  If  any  ill-judging  member  of  the  church  should  deny  this  doctrine  of  Parkhurst's,  then 
I  desire  him  to  account  to  me  in  some  better  way  for  what  we  have  found  in  the  histories  of 
Buddha,  Cristna,  Salivahana,  Pythagoras,  &c.  If  he  fail  in  his  attempt,  let  not  the  honest  inquirer 
for  truth  blame  me,  I  have  fairly  stated  Mr.  Parkhurst's  opinion  and  mode  of  accounting  for  the 
facts  which  I  have  developed,  because  I  consider  them  the  best  which  I  have  seen,  and  because  I 
should  not  have  acted  with  fairness  and  impartiality  had  I  not  stated  them.  They  have  a  ten- 
dency to  promote  the  interests  of  science,  not  to  injure  them, 

In  his  first  chapter  and  seventeenth  verse  Matthew  says,  "  So  all  the  geneiations  from 
"  Abraham  to  David  are  fourteen  generations  ;  and  from  David  until  the  carrying  away  into 
"  Babylon  are  fourteen  generations;  and  from  the  carrying  away  into  Babjlon  unto  Christ  are 
"  fourteen  generations."  Surely  nothing  can  have  a  more  mythological  appearance  than  this, 
We  must  not  forget  that  the  Bible  says,  the  age  of  man  is  seventy  years;  by  which  we  have 
already  seen  that  the  sura  of  seventy- two  years  is  almost  uniformly  meant.  These  three  series* 
of  generations  make  42,  which  multiplied  by  71i— 3003.  If  we  add  14  more  generations  be- 
fore Abraham  to  the  42~56,  we  shall  have  71|x56~4004,  the  correct  orthodox  chronological 
period.  If  we  then  add,  in  the  same  manner,  28  for  two  series  more,  making  84x7I|>  we 
shall  have  six  series  for  the  6000  years,  which  completes  the  mythos*  Nimrod  says,  "  As 
"  to  their  Manichaean  romance  legends  we  may  observe,  that  the  succession  of  Great  Abad, 
<c  (Bauddha,  or  Abaddon  from  the  bottomless  pit,)  and  the  thirteen  Abads,  implies  the  thirteen 
"generations  of  Solimans  or  theanthropic  rulers  from  Adam  to  Nimrod/'1  Now  the  Great 
Abad  or  Buddha  and  the  thirteen  make  fourteen,  and  this  makes  up  the  correct  number  to  com- 
plete the  mythos,  as  it  is  evident,  from  Nimrod,  that  the  Manichaeans  made  it  out.  Besides,  it 
appears  that  the  reckoning,  by  periods  offourteens,  is  exactly  in  character  with  the  gospel  history* 
The  author  of  the  Cambridge  Key  has  made  an  observation  which  shews,  in  a  very  striking  man- 
ner, the  universal  nature  of  the  mythos :  "  I  may  observe,  that  of  the  first  fourteen  dynasties  of 
"Manethon,  seven  are, without  names;  and  that  in  the  first  fourteen  dynasties  of  every  other 
"  nation  the  same  omission  is  observable.  The  Hebrews  only  give  the  names  of  Adam,  and  the 
"  six  princes  in  the  race  of  Seth,  who  reigned  in  succession.  The  Hindus  and  Chinese  give  the 
"  first  created,  and  six  princes  in  the  same  line:  the  Chaldaeans  those  in  the  race  of  Cain:  each 
"  nation  omits  the  names  in  the  other  race,  that  is,  the  names  by  which  they  were  known  as 
'<  sovereigns.  The  Old  Chronicle,  which  treats  of  Upper  Egypt,  gives  the  dynasties,  or  more 
"  properly  reigns,  complete,  making  Noah  the  fourteenth."*  This  accounts  for  the  series 
of  fourteen  before  Abraham  not  named  by  Matthew.  It  is  probable  that  the  difference  between 
the  Samaritan  and  Hebrew  chronology  has  arisen  from  a  corruption  of  the  Hebrew,  to  make 
it  suit  to  certain  mistaken  times  of  the  equinoxes  or  solstices  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  of 
eight  or  nine  days  alluded  to  by  Columella,  who  is  doubtful  whether  it  was  eight  or  nine  days— 
all  which  will  be  noticed  at  large  presently.  To  prove  this,  if  we  take  56  generations  and  multiply 
them  by  72,  and  add  for  the  8  days  and  part  of  8  days,  in  all  9  days — 9  generations — 9x72—648, 
we  shall  hax'e4680.3  But  if  we  take  the  nearly  correct  time  for  the  precession  in  one  sign, 
-f  2153-f  2153, -f35/j-f  16^zz374~5  degrees,  and  a  fraction  of  one  degree,  we  have  4680;  and  if  we 
take  another  fraction  of  one  degree,  we  have  2153-f  2153-f  357?4-36f,  we  have  4700.  If  we  mul- 
tiply the  more  correct  Manwantara,  71 1  by  56,  the  number  of  generations,  we  have  4004.  Here 
we  see  the  real  cause  of  the  difference  between  the  Samaritans  and  Jews.  The  former  took  the 


Vol.  II,  p,  509  '  Vol.  II,  p,  135.  3  See  Vol.  I,  p.  191, 


134  OBSERVATIONS. 

correct  time  by  the  precession,  which  did  not  cause  the  error  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  of  9 
days ;  the  latter  took  the  common  erroneous  Greek  and  Roman,  and  thus  got  their  4004  years. 
It  seems  to  me  impossible  to  devise  any  thing  more  satisfactory  than  this.  We  must  not  forget 
what  I  have  said  formerly,  that  these  calculations  will  all  be  right  if  made  in  round  numbers,  if 
the  error  do  not  exceed  71  or  72  years,  which  mode  of  calculation,  for  the  festivals,  is  justified  by 
the  state  of  the  case,  as  well  as  by  the  observation  of  Columella.  This  we  shall  see  presently* 

An  Antara,  often  called  Outar1  by  our  travellers,  of  India,  means  a  generation  or  age,  and  a 
Manw-antara  is  an  age,  that  is  evidently  an  age  of  man,  and  consists  of  seventy-two  years,  or  of 
seventy-one  and  a  fraction— rather  better  than  a  half—  the  age  of  man  spoken  of  in  the  Bible. 
Here  we  have  the  fifty-six  Manwantaras  exactly  agreeing  with  Usher.  It  will  not  have  been  for- 
gotten that,  in  our  calculation  of  the  cycles,  we  always  deducted  for  the  precession  of  one  sign,  2160 
years.  An  age  or  generation  was  also  thirty  years.  The  Persians  said,  that  there  were  seventy-two 
Solomons,  that  is,  seventy- two  tuise  ta&i  before  the  flood:  these  were  30x72=2160,  the  years  of 
the  precession  in  one  sign.  In  these  cases  the  Soluxni  were  probably  incarnations  of  wisdom  or 
the  sun,  reigning  in  the  towns  where  the  temples  of  Solomon  were  built.  Mr.  Niebuhr  has  con- 
tended that,  from  the  peculiar  division  of  the  first  kings  of  Rome  into  astrological  peiiods,  making 
up  the  number  360,  combined  xvith  other  circumstances,  it  ib  apparent  that  not  a  leal  history  but 
a  mythos  must  have  been  intended,  and  this  reasoning  has  been  icceived  by  learned  men  with 
almost  univeisal  approbation.  Now,  in  consequence  of  meeting  with  the  history  of  Solomon  and 
Saul,  (or  Talut 2  as  he  is  called  both  in  India  and  Western  Arabia,)  and  many  other  particulars 
of  the  Jewish  history  both  in  India  and  Western  Syria,  the  use  of  astrological  numbers  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Jews,  and  the  extraordinary  and  unaccountable  fact,  that  Herodotus  never  names  the 
magnificent  empire  of  Solomon,  it  is  apparent  that  the  whole  Jewish  history  is  an  allegory,  is,  in 
fact,  the  same  kind  of  history  as  that  of  the  first  three  hundred  years  of  Rome. 3  It  is  one  of  the 
parables  of  the  Christian  religion,  in  the  gospel  histories  of  which  Jesus  Christ  is  made,  in  so 
peculiar  a  manner,  to  teach  his  doctrines.  The  peculiarity  of  the  fourteen  numbered  periods  at 
once  proves  that  this  was  not  meant  for  real  history.  It  is  totally  incredible  that  such  round 
numbers  should  come  out  in  real  life  and  complete  the  sum  of  the  6000  years.  The  Mathemati- 
cians or  Chaldeans,  as  I  shall  presently  shew,  were  the  only  persons  who  really  understood  the 
principle  of  the  mythos  in  the  lime  of  Caesar,  which  induces  me  to  believe  that  the  whole  X^(r- 
tian  mythos  was  a  Masonic  or  Rossicrucian  mystery;  first,  in  part,  let  out  by  the  publication, 
under  Ptolemy,  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  (or  of  what  were  perhaps  only  a  part4  of  the  Jewish 
Scriptures,)  and  never,  in  fact,  all  openly  known  in  any  thing  approaching  to  a  whole — never  put 
together  or  explained  openly,  until  now  so  done  by  me.  It  would  originally  be  known  at  every 
great  temple,  like  Delphi,  Eleusis,  Dodona,  &c.  As  time  advanced,  parts  of  it  got  out  by  the 
treachery,  indiscretion,  or  insanity  of  the  initiated,  and  all  became  every  day  more  doubtful,  in 
consequence  of  the  neglect  of  intercalary  days,  which  was  throwing  the  system  into  confusion. 


1  The  word  Outara  means  an  age,  and  a  Man-outara  is  an  age  of  man.  *  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  546,  740,  741, 

3  The  Abbe*  Bdzin  says,  "No  Grecian  author  cited  Moses  before  Longinus,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Aurelian  " 
Phil,  of  Hist,  p  159     This  seems  a  very  curious  and  important  observation  indeed. 

4  The  book  of  Genesis  shews  evident  marks  of  its  being  a  compilation,  and  of  mutilation.    The  way  in  which  the 
tree  of  life  is  named,  ch.  ii.  ver.  9,  shews  that  some  account  of  it,  now  wanting,  must  have  preceded.    The  amalgama- 
tion of  the  X/^-tian  with  the  Jewish  mythos  in  North  and  South  India,  in  which  they  differ  from  the  present  canonical 
mythos  of  the  Jews,  which  does  not  include  the  crucifixion,  resuirection,  and  ascension,  &c.,  shews  that  we  have  not 
the  whole;  but  we  have  it  clearly  in  the  Apocrypha,  which  proves  that  the  mythos  was  a  secret  doctrine.    This  is  con- 
firmed by  the  extraordinary  circumstance  of  the  whole  mythos  being  found,  as  we  have  seen,  in  Mexico— Book  I. 
Chapter  IV. 


a 


OBSERVATIONS.  135 

Whenever  we  get  back  to  the  earliest  point  to  which  we  can  go,  xve  always  find  the  Chaldei  or 
Mathematici — those  persons  who  are  said  by  Josephus  to  have  handed  down  the  cycle  from  the 
Antediluvians,  the  persons,  I  think,  (as  shewn  by  Mr.  Hammer,)  who,  under  the  name  of  Mathe- 
matici, were  certainly  Freemasons.  The  historical  evidence  that  the  Chaldeans  were  Chasdim,  or 
that  the  Chasdim  were  Chaldeans,  is  clear;  but  I  think  Mr.  Bryant's  objection  to  the  etymologi- 
cal derivation  of  Chaldean  from  Chasdim  is  well  founded.  The  fact,  probably,  was,  that  the  Chas- 
dim or  Chasidim,  were  persons  of  the  college  of  Casi,  which  was  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  or  Callidiia, 
or,  in  the  country  of  the  di-cali  or  ia  of  the  the  holy  Cali.  We  have  a  Casi  to  which  students  in 
medicine  went  to  study  the  Chaldean  language  in  two  places  in  North  India :  Benares,  anciently 
called  Casi,  and  the  temple  of  Solomon  in  Casi-mere. 1  This  order  of  Cyclopes  or  Calidei  or  Ma- 
thematici were  the  builders  of  Stonehenge  and  A  bury  in  the  West,  and  of  Dipaldenha,  the  temples 
of  Solomon,  the  Pyramids,  &c.,  &,c.,  in  the  East,  beginning  with  the  simplest  of  all  temples,  a 
Gilgal,  that  is,  stone  circle,  and  ending  with  the  highly  finished  York  Minster,  The  Chasdim  or 
Kasdim  or  Casi-di-im  were  Kasideans,  and  both  the  same  as  the  Callidei  or  Chaldei  or  Chasidim. 
The  Chalidi  were  followers  of  Cali,  the  female  deity  of  love  j  the  Casideans  were  from  anrr  ^ 
as  we  say  Chrs,  Bpo>£,  the  male  deity.  In  my  opinion  that  the  Chasideans  or  Kasideans  were 
Chaldei  and  Mathematici  and  Freemasons,  I  am  supported  by  Scaliger,  who  makes  them  knights 
of  the  Temple,  to  whom  the  duty  was  specially  devolved  of  maintaining  that  structure.  Scaliger 
says,  that  they  were  not  a  sect,  but  an  order  or  fraternity,  and  consisted  of  men  of  great  wealth 
and  power.2  The  circumstance  that  the  Kasideans  or  Casi- deans  were  an  order,  and  not  a  sect,  is 
very  important ;  for  this  accounts  for  their  being  found  in  several  sects  or  religions,  like  Freemasons, 
and  for  the  Templars  being  Kasideans.  The  description  applies  to  the  Freemasons  in  every  parti- 
cular ;  and  this  accounts  for  their  being  found  among  the  Essenes,  in  consequence  of  which  they  have 
been  thought  to  have  been  Essenes,  I  have  some  suspicion  that  the  Caraites  were  a  branch  of  them, 
and  were  named  after  the  district  called  Cozar  or  Caesar,  whence  the  Caspian  sea  was  called  Kisr. 
I  think  we  may  be  pretty  certain  that  the  Kasideans  were  masons  and  successors  of  the  Cyclopes, 
the  fabricators  of  the  stone  circles,  cromlehs,  &c.3  It  is  very  curious  to  observe,  that  not  one  in  a 
thousand  of  the  inquirers  into  the  antiquities  of  nations  ever  condescends  to  bestow  a  thought  on 
the  authors  of  these  very  numerous  edifices,  and  the  most  stupendous  monuments  on  the  face  of 
the  earth — to  be  found  in  all  countries,  even  of  the  new  as  well  as  of  the  old  world.  I  find  from 
Mr.  Sharon  Turner,4  that  the  year  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  began  on  the  25th  of  December.  The  night 
before  that  day,  they  called  Moedrenech,  Mother  Night.  It  was  spent  in  religious  ceremonies.  Our 
month  of  December  was  called  Giuli,  or  CErra  Geola,  and  the  month  of  January  was  called  CEftera 
Geola.  Bede  says,  the  Saxons  called  the  months  above-named  Geola  from  the  turning  of  the  sun  on 
that  day.5  Now  there  does  not  seem  any  reason  to  believe  that  they  had  learned  this  from  either 
the  Romans  or  the  Christians ;  and,  if  this  be  admitted,  we  have  here,  in  the  correct  fixation  of  the 
solstice,  a  decisive  and  triumphant  proof  that  the  Barbarian  Saxons  were  better  skilled  in  astro- 
nomy than  either  the  Greeks  or  Romans,  in  the  time  of  Caesar.  This  affords  strong  presumptive 
evidence  that  the  priests  or  Druids,  or  Callidei,  were  descendants  or  had  derived  their  learning 


1  See  Vol.  I.  p.  702.  a  Basnage,  Hist  Jews,  B.  n.  Ch.  xi  p,  126. 

3  The  numerous  circles  which  are  found  in  India  aie  said  by  the  inhabitants  to  have  been  erected  by  a  race  of  people 
culled  Chseones  or  Chaons,  who  are  said  to  have  been  pigmies.  Why  they  are  supposed  to  be  pigmies  I  cannot  ima- 
gine ;  but  the  word  Chseon  is  only  the  aspirated  ^Eon  or  the  Greek  A/«v,  and  has  the  meaning  of  cycle  as  well  as  ema- 
nation from  the  sun,  and  is  thus  a  cyclop,  one  of  the  Pi-clo  01  of  the  Cyclops. 

*  History  of  the  Pagan  or  Anglo-Saxons,  Vol.  II.  Ch.  iv.  *  The  Geola  is  evidently  our  goal,  used  in  racing. 


136  OBSERVATIONS. 

from  the  Chaldeeans  of  Tartary,  or  Eastern  Scythia,  or  North  India.  There  are  only  two  ways  of 
getting  over  this.  The  first  is,  to  attribute  it  to  accident.  The  second  is,  to  suppose  that  these 
ignorant  barbarians  took  their  Festival  from  the  corrected  calendar  of  the  Romans — with  whom 
they  were  at  perpetual  war.  Man  was  considered  a  microcosm  by  the  Mystics  5  and  as  he  was 
made  after  the  image  of  God,  and  as  God  was  the  Kosmos,  Mundus,  he  was  made  after  the  image 
of  the  world,  the  To  Oav,  the  To  Ov.  We  have  before  observed,  in  numerous  instances,  his 
close  connexion  with  the  renewing  cycles,  and  on  this  account  the  first  race  of  one-eyed  beings, 
called  Cyclopes  or  KuxXozre?,  made  after  the  image  of  God,  the  sun,  had  only  one  eye.  After 
some  time,  and  for  the  same  reason^  the  Hero  Gods — Jupiter  in  the  West,  and  Vishnu  in  the  East, 
came  to  have  three  eyes  in  imitation  of  the  supposed  image  of  the  Trimurti.  In  strict  accordance 
with  this  was  the  renewed  incarnation  of  the  Solar  Deity,  the  Loyo£,  in  every  cycle,  in  every 
neros,  in  which  every  thing  was  supposed  to  be  renewed — new  Argonauts,  new  Troys,  &c.  Tims 
the  Genius  of  each  c\  cle,  every  year  as  it  revolved,  was  celebrated  nncrocosmically.  In  allusion 
to  this,  he  was  born  with  the  new-born  Sun  on  the  moment  when  the  sun  began  to  increase  on  the 
25th  of  December,  and  he  was  feigned  to  die,  and  be  put  to  death,  and  to  rise  from  the  grave  after 
three  days,  at  the  vernal  equinox.  The  God  was  continued  by  renewed  incarnation  till  he  came 
again,  till  the  cycle  ended  and  was  renewed,  till  the  end  of  the  6000  years.  This  is  still  exempli- 
fied in  the  Lamas  of  Tibet,  and  in  the  Popes,  in  all  things  yet  more  similar  than,  from  the  lapse  of 
time  and  their  great  distance,  could  be  expected.  Here  we  find  the  reason  why  some  of  the  Popcb, 
intoxicated  with  silly  vanity,  let  out  the  secret  and  called  themselves  Gods  upon  earth ;  and  this 
is  the  reason  why,  as  incarnations  of  the  Creator  of  Heaven,  Earth,  and  Hell,  they  wear  the 
triple  crown.  The  ceremonies  of  the  Romish  church  consist  almost  entirely  of  scenic  representa- 
tions of  the  acts  of  Jesus  Christ.  All  his  history  is  acted  over  every  year  $  a  measure  well  calcu- 
lated to  keep  the  mythos  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  for  which  our  reading  of  the  gospel  histories 
has  been  substituted.  Of  the  same  nature  were  our  sacred  dramas,  or  mysteries  as  they  were 
called,  of  the  middle  ages.  Of  the  same  nature  were  the  plays  of  ^Eschylus,  in  which,  as  I  have 
before  remarked,  we  have  the  Prometheus  bound,  so  called  to  disguise  ita  but  which  ought  to  be 
the  Prometheus  crucified*  After  his  resurrection  Jesus  is  said  to  have  gone  before  his  disciples 
into  Galilee  3  *  that  is,  Fa^-aTuia  or  N>-^K-^I  gl-al-ia,  the  country  of  the  circle  or  revolution.  We 
must  not  forget  that  Sir  William  Drummond  proved  that  all  the  Hebrew  names  of  places  in  the 
holy  land  were  astronomical.  I  have  no  doubt  that  these  names  were  given  by  Jobhua  when  he 
conquered,  settled,  and  divided  it  among  his  twelve  tribes,  and  that  all  those  names  Imd  a  refe- 
rence to  the  solar  mythos.  The  same  mythos  prevailed  in  almost  every  country,  and  this  is  the 
reason  why  we  find  the  same  names  in  every  country.  They  were  the  bacred  or  religious  names, 
the  places,  piobably,  having  other  common  names,  and  were  necessary  for  their  religious  ritcw; 
their  search  for  the  members  of  Bacchus,  of  Osiris,  &c.,  or  for  the  journey  of  the  Mary's  to  look 
for  the  body  of  Christ.  We  must  not  forget  that  we  have  the  three  Mary's  in  Britain  and  in 
Gaul,  one  of  them  the  Firgo  Paritura,  and  at  Delphi,  as  well  as  in  Palestine.  All  the  great  out- 
lines of  the  mythoses  were  evidently  the  same,  though,  of  course,  in  a  long  series  of  years,  they 
varied  in  small  matters.  But  the  similarity,  as  we  find,  would  continue  the  longest  in  the  names 
of  places  and  countries, — though,  as  I  have  just  said,  I  do  not  suppose  those  bacied  names  wen- 
those  in  common  use.  I  have  no  doubt  that  every  country  and  place  had  two  names  at  least. 
Each  independent  territory  had  its  sacred  mount  or  Olympus,  &c,  In  time,  as  one  state  or  tribe 


Mark  xvi.  7. 


OBSERVATIONS.  137 

conquered  another,  or  as  a  country  of  twelve  tribes  divided,  the  two  mythoses  would  be  thrown 
together  or  divided,  and  perhaps  a  new  mount  adopted  by  part  of  the  tribes,  as  a  new  mount  \ui<- 
adopted  at  Jerusalem,  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  either  the  twelve  tribes  or  their 
mythos  should  always  continue.  We  have  hundreds  of  Juptters  or  Gods  I  E,  n*  or  Jab ;  all  the 
Godfa  were  Jah  and  Rajah,  or  Roi-Jah.  We  have  numbers  of  Mithras,  Bacchuses,  Herculeses, 
&c.j  &c.  Sometimes  they  were  multiplied  by  the  genii  of  the  nine  cycles,  all  going  by  the  same 
name.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Bacchus  or  Hercules,  by  the  God  or  Genius  of  one  cycle 
taking  the  same  name  in  man)  different  countries.  All  this  has  led  to  the  confusion  which,  in 
these  matters,  has  hitherto  prevailed,  and  necessarily  prevailed,  In  my  opinion  the  singularity  of 
the  regular  periods  observed  by  Niebuhr  sufficiently  proves  the  mythos ;  but  there  are  traces  of 
another  period,  of  which  Mr.  Niebuhr  had  no  knowledge,  to  be  found  in  Cato, l  who  gives  a 
different  account,  and  sayb,  that  Troy  was  taken  432  years  befoie  the  foundation  of  Rome.  Here 
we  have  evidently  the  two  numbers  on  which  the  cycles  of  2160 — 21,600 — 432,000,  are  founded.  In 
the  multitude  of  our  researches  we  have  very  often  met  with  the  word  sam  nttf  sm'or  nD  sm9  as 
a  name  of  the  sun,  I  feel  greatly  surprised  at  myself  that  my  mind  should  have  never  be*»n  turned  to 
this  curious  and  important  word,  evidently  the  Roman  Sumnaut2  Its  numeral  power  is  §—200,  Mrr: 
40—240.  For  reasons  which  we  shall  soon  see,  this  has  probably  been  its  meaning  111  the  Latin  or 
Etruscan,  But  as  I  have,  in  a  future  book,  established  the  fact  on  as  good  evidence  (viz.  a  high 
probability)  as  these  matters  "will  admit,  that  the  last  three  letters  of  th.e  alphabets  were  inter- 
changeable as  far  as  regards  their  powers  of  notation,  we  may  consider  the  Hebrew  meaning  to  be 
the  same,  namely,  240.  In  the  Hebrew,  as  a  verb,  it  means  to  place  in  order.  In  its  plural,  it  it> 
applied,  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis,  to  the  planetary  bodies,  and,  generally  speaking,  I  believe  it 
may  be  rendered  a  planetary  body,  ranking  the  sun  as  one — for  it  is  constantly  used  for  the  sun. 
Mr.  Parkhurst  observes,  that  probably  the  idol  Chemin  of  the  ne\v  world  was  the  feame  word,  as  it 
had  the  same  meaning.  Asa  name  of  the  sun,  it  came  to  denote  the  trinity  (as  Mr.  Parkhurst 
shews  that  it  did).  Jn  strict  keeping  with  all  my  previous  doctrines,  it  means  to  place  w  order 
with  great  care,  and  to  make  waste  and  utterly  desolate  and  in  disorder ;  herein  exhibiting  the 
Generator  and  Destroyer.  It  meant  an  onion,  from  the  regular  disposition  of  the  involucra  or  in- 
teguments.3 An  onion  was  considered  to  be  O.UM  rwv  atavwv. 

I  must  now  request  my  reader  to  turn  to  Volume  I.  pp.  647,  648,  658,  and  he  will  see  it 
proved,  by  various  authorities,  that  the  fish  Cannes  was  in  name  the  same  ab  John.  John 
was  the  cousin  of  Jesus.  Now,  I  think,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  Arjoon,  of  the  Indian*,, 
is  the  same  as  the  John  of  the  Christians.  His  name  with  the  prefix  Ar,  which  I  do  riot  un- 
derstand, is  the  same,  Arjoon  was  the  cousin  of  Cristna,  and  nearly  every  thing  which  was 
said  of  Rama  is  said  of  Ar-joon.  It  is  remarkable  that  Cristna  and  Rama  are  said  to  be  the 
same.  Then,  if  Rama  is  the  same  as  Arjoon,  Arjoon  and  Cristna  must  he  the  same.  John 
is  the  cousin  of  Christ,  Arjoon  of  Cristna.  Christ  is  represented  both  by  the  Lamb  and  by 
a  Fish  or  the  Fishes.  The  Lamb  is  Ram,  the  Fish  is  John  or  Cannes.  In  the  stale  of  the 
Planisphere  at  the  ninth  cycle,  John  or  Cannes  or  Pisces,  had  been  running  300  years,  or  vuib 
declining  before  Jesus,  in  the  ninth  cycle  of  the  Neros,  had  begun.  Though  different  cycles, 
they  were,  as  forming  a  part  of  the  whole  large  one  of  the  Zodiac,  or  2160  years,  the  bame.  Thus 
John  had  passed  360  years,  more  than  half  of  a  cycle  of  600,  when  Jesus  began  his  cycle. 
All  the  cycles  of  the  Neros  would  be  cycles  of  the  Ram  or  Lamb,  whilst  the  equinox  was  passing 

J  Antiquit  Rom  Lib  i,  Sect.  Ixxiv  p  59;  Horn  et  ses  Edit*,  par  D'Uilmn,  p  41. 

*  Refer  to  Appendix  of  first  Volume,  p.  833,  for  corruption  of  Turn,  Sain,  Cain ,  it  shews  Sam  to  be  the  original. 

*  Numb.  xi.  5;  Paikhurst  in  voce;  Hutchin&on's  Works,  Vol  IV  p  262. 

T 


338  OBSERVATIONS. 

through  Aries;  and  of  the  Fish,  whilst  it  was  passing  through  Pisces.  Thus  Rama  and  Ciistna 
were  the  same.  Joannes— 240,  and  RM-240,  the  name  of  the  sacred  number  of  Rome,  or  the 
city  of  Rama,  as  pointed  out  by  Niebuhr.  The  period  of  360  years,  which  John  or  Pisces  preceded 
Jesus,  will  form  a  cycle  with  the  21,600,  as  well  also  as  Rome's  sacred  number  of  240.  Thus  we 
find  Ramas  in  the  history  of  all  the  cycles  connected  with  Cribtna,  and  subsequently  we  find 
Johns.  I  think  the  Eastern  nations,  in  a  particular  manner,  attached  themselves  to  the  number 
0,  the  van;  and  the  Western  to  the  number  o.  (We  must  never  forget  Pythagoras's  doctrine  of 
numbers  )  The  first,  to  the  6x12=72,  and  72x6iz432.  The  latter,  to  the  5x10=00,  and  60X10 
—360.  The  6,  the  vau,  the  even  number,  was  for  the  female;  the  5,  the  odd,  for  the  male;  and  the 
two  united  formed  the  cycle  or  sacred  number,  4320.  The  five  is  the  n  or  He,  the  male  in  Saxon 
and  Hebrew.  The  two  together  make  the  Evan  ;  and  also  the  KKV>,  aYua0j=28.  Although  I  can- 
not exactly  explain  how  or  by  what  steps  it  arose,  yet  it  is  clear  to  me  that  the  sacred  number, 
240,  of  the  Romans,  arose  from  CDltf  s?wzz240;  and,  in  the  plural,  their  God  Saman.  Mr.  Niebuhr 
has  shewn  how  both  the  number  of  360,  and  the  number  of  240,  were  used  by  the  Romans,  in  each 
case  making  up  their  number  of  1440,  from  the  destruction  of  Troy  to  the  founding  of  Nova 
Roma,  bv  Constantine,  on  the  seven  hillb,  in  Hie  Thracian  Romelia  or  the  Romclia  of  Thrace, 
uhere  the  widows  were  burnt  on  the  funeral  piles  of  their  husbands — in  a  countiy  called  Sindi, 
having  the  religion  of  the  X^g.  Although  I  cannot  explain  how  it  was  made  out,  I  think  I  can 
see  a  high  probability,  that  this  mythos  of  the  Romans  and  of  Constantino  was  closely  connected 
with,  or  was  an  integral  part  of,  the  mythos  of  the  East,  of  Virgil,  as  we  might  expect  from  the 
doctrine  of  Ammonius  Saccas,  that,  in  the  main,  all  the  religions  were  the  same.  I  must  now 
make  a  few  observations  on  the  want  of  absolute  accuracy  in  round  numbers,  which  shews  itself  in 
almost  all  the  calculations  ;  but,  if  we  look  closely  into  the  matter,  we  shall  observe,  that  this  is 
an  effect  which,  in  most  cases,  must  necessarily  arise  from  the  primary  numbers  of  nature,  on 
which  they  are  founded,  not  being  accurate.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  Millenium  is  founded  on  the 
Neros;  but  the  correct  Neros  depends,  by  nature,  on  the  fraction  of  a  second  of  time :  and  the 
question  often  presents  itself,  whether  we  are  to  take  2153  or  2160.  It  is  obvious  that,  by  taking 
a  fraction,  I  could  easily  bring  out  my  whole  round  number  of  6000 ;  but  cut  lono  f  It  is  suffici- 
ently near  for  the  vulgar  runners  after  the  Millenium.  It  is  evident,  or  in  a  few  minutes  will  be 
so,  that  all  these  little  errors  were  perfectly  well  known  to  the  Chaldeans.  In  addition  to  these 
considerations  I  shall  shew,  in  a  future  book,  that  the  Chaldeans  foresaw  that  a  Comet  would 
affect  the  earth  in  more  than  one  of  its  progresses  \  and,  by  its  disturbing  force,  necessarily  cause 
an  irregularity^  from  its  nature  unknown,  but,  on  the  whole,  even  of  several  years.  This  is  per- 
fectly justified  by  the  retardation  wlr'ch  astronomers  observed  lo  take  place  in  Jupiter  when  the 
Comet  [of  1680?]  approached  that  planet.1  I  think  these  considerations  are  quite  sufficient 
to  answer  the  above  small  objections  for  the  present ;  and  I  shall  now  proceed  to  the  complete 
development  of  the  secret  Romish  system. 

If  my  reader  .will  revert  to  Volume  I.  pp.  175,  18-2,  191,  he  will  observe  that  the  Indian  scholars 
agree  in  stating  it  to  be  the  unanimous  doctrine  of  the  Brahmins,  that  their  Cali  Yug  began  3101 
jears  before  Christ,  that,  at  that  time,  the  flood  took  place,  and  that  the  sun  entered  the  zodiacal 
sign  Aries  at  the  vernal  equinox.  Here,  in  the  date  of  the  sun's  entrance  into  Aries,  there  appears 

1  The  Author's  appaiently  premature  decease  prevented  his  filling  up  tlie  blank  he  had  here  left  in  his  MS,  If  lu» 
leferred  to  the  Comet  of  1680,  (as  submitted  in  the  brackets,)  liis  statement  is  dhectly  opposed  to  the  conclusions  of 
Dr.  Halley,  who,  "having  observed  that"  it  "came  very  near  Jupiter  in  the  summer  of  J 681,  above  a  year  before  lib 
last  appearance,  and  remained  several  months  in  the  neighbourhood  of  that  planet,  judged  that  circumstance  alone 
sufficient  to  have  considerably  ictarded  its  motion  and  prolonged  the  duration  of  its  revolution."— Ebsuy  to wunls  a 
History  of  the  principal  Comets,  &c  ,  pp,  64,  65,  Glasgow, 


OBSERVATIONS.  139 

to  me  to  be  an  error  of  nearly  600  years,  which  has  never  been  observed  by  any  of  our  oriented 
astronomers*  The  Brahmins,  when  questioned  upon  this  point,  say,  Those  events  happened  when 
the  Sun  and  Moon  were  in  a  certain  position,  which  was  obberved  at  the  time  it  took  place,  and 
that  time  is  only  to  be  known  by  back-reckoning.  This  error  is  of  great  moment,  and,  if  I  be 
right,  it  is  a  most  extraordinary  circumstance  that  it  has  been  overlooked  by  all  the  orientalists : 
for  the  Sun  certainly  did  not  enter  the  sign  Aries  until  about  2520  years  before  Christ.  If  our 
orientalists  did  not  observe  it,  the  fact  proves  with  how  very  little  attention  they  read^  and  how 
very  superficially  they  consider  these  subjects.  At  all  events  I  believe  they  have  never  made  any 
observations  upon  it. 

I  will  now  try  to  explain  the  error,  and  to  shew  how  it  aro&e.  "  Columella  says,1  the  17th  of 
ft  December  the  sun  passes  into  Capiicorn  ;  it  is  the  WINTER  SOLSTICE,  as  Hipparchus  will  have  it. 
"  The  24th  of  December  is  the  winter  solstice,  AS  THE  CHALD^EAXS  OBSKRVB."2 

Now  it  is  well  known  that  Caesar,  with  the  assistance  of  a  celebrated  Chaldean  astronomer  from 
Egypt,  called  Sosigenes,  ascertained  the  winter  solstice  to  take  place  on  the  25th  of  December,  at 
thirty  minutes  past  one  o'clock  in  the  morning.  And  it  is  a  striking  circumstance  that  he  appear** 
from  the  expression  of  Colnmella  to  have  availed  himself  of  the  reckoning  of  the  Chaldeans,  whom 
my  reader  will  recollect  I  have  shewn  to  have  coine,  with  Abraham,  or  the  Brahmin,  from  India, 
and  whom  our  historians  affect  to  treat  with  contempt,  as  having,  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  become 
mere  charlatans  or  conjurors;  but  who  were,  as  appears  from  the  facts  above-named,  in  reality 
the  only  persons  who  had  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  astronomy  to  correct  the  calendar,  which  had 
fallen  into  the  utmost  confusion.  This  any  one  may  see  by  looking  at  our  common  globes,  where 
he  will  find  the  Vernal  equinox  fixed  to  the  30th  of  Aquarius,  which  makes  the  equinox  to  fall  on 
the  25th  of  Pisces,  or  March,  1800  years  ago,  by  calculating  back  the  precesbion  25  degiees,  at  19. 
years  to  a  degree.  Now,  from  the  17th  of  December  (the  solstice,  accoiding  to  Hipparchus)  to 
the  25th,  according  to  the  Chaldeans,  there  is  a  space  of  8  days,  which  answers  to  8  degrees,  and 
as  the  solstice  precedes  a  degree  in  72  years,  it  makes  in  time,  calculated  on  these  data,  an  error 
of  576  years:  8x72~o?6.  The  Brahmins  at  this  day,  as  we  have  formerly  shewn,  fix  the  en- 
trance of  the  equinoctial  sun  into  the  sign  Aries  and  their  Cali  Yug,  3101  years  before  the  time 
Usher  fixed  for  the  birth  of  Christ  5  in  which  he  made  a  mistake  of  four  years.  Now,  if  we  allow 
for  this  error  of  Usher's  of  four  years,  the  time  to  the  date  of  the  Cali  Yug  is  3096  years  B.  C., 
and  the  error  of  the  Brahmins  is  exactly  576  years.  For,  from  the  25th  of  Pisces,  reckoning  back 
to  the  first  of  Aries,  there  are  not  43  degrees,  as  the  Brahmin  calculation  would  require,  but  35 
degrees  only;  which  number,  multiplied  by  72?  gives  2520  \  and  ibis  sum  added  to  576  makes 
3096 -f  4n3 100.  This  proves  that  the  present  Brahmins,  when  they  fix  their  Cali  Yug  by  back 
calculation,  are  exactly  in  the  same  error  as  Hipparchus,  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  were,  as  to 
the  time  of  the  solstice. 

The  next  question  which  arises  is,  How  the  Brahmins  fell  into  this  error  of  eight  days  in  the 
date  of  the  solstice,  and  into  its  consequent  error  of  576  years  ?  And  now,  I  think,  we  shall  find 
another  striking  and  curious  coincidence,  which  will  go  far  towards  proving  that  the  Hindoo 
system  must  have  been  founded  on  observation,  near  5000  years  before  Christ,  We  have  seen 
that  there  were  eight  Avatars  believed  to  have  passed  in  Siain,  and  eight  Saecula  believed  to  have 
passed  at  Rome,  at  the  birth  of  Christ.  These  eight  Avatars  and  Saecula  I  have  shewn  to  be 
Neroses, 3 

Lalande,  in  his  astronomy, 4  says,  "  Si  Ton  emploie  la  duree  de  Tannee  que  nous  connoissons,  et 


1  Book  xi.  Ch  ii.  *  Bentley,  Hist,  A&t.  p.  2S1. 

*  See  Vol.  I.  1/5-177,  215.  4  Tome  II.  Ast.  15/0,  etl  3. 


140  OBSERVATIONS. 

"  le  mois  synodiquc  tel  quo  nous  Vavons  indique  ci-devant,  c'est-a-dire,  des  mois  de  291}  12h,  44', 
"  3",  chacun,  Ton  aura  2bh,  1',  42"  de  trop,  clans  les  sept  mille,  quatre  cent,  vingt-une  lunaisons: 
"  ainsi  la  lime  retarderoit  de  plus  d'un  jour  au  bout  de  six  cents  ans."  If  my  leader  will  look 
back  to  Volume  L  p.  169,  he  will  find  the  above  passage  quoted,  and  a  promise  there  made  that  1 
would  return  to  it.  From  this  observation  it  appears  that  there  was,  in  fact,  an  inaccuracy  in 
each  Neros  or  Saeculum  of  more  than  one  day  in  calculating  it  exactly  at  600  years ;  which,  if  the 
solstice  were  settled,  as  of  course  it  would  be  by  the  cycle  invented  for  the  purpose  of  settling  it, 
but  without  taking  the  error  into  the  account,  would,  in  eight  Ssecula,  cause  it  to  be  fixed  to 
the  17th  day  of  December,  instead  of  the  25th,  and  produce  the  mistake  of  the  eight  days,  and 
the  consequent  error  of  576  years.  To  keep  the  reckoning  right,  a  day  and  part  of  a  day  ought  to 
have  been  intercalated  every  600  years, 

The  truth  of  what  I  have  just  now  stated  may  be  shewn  in  another  way.  In  reality  the  space 
the  sun  passed  through,  that  is,  preceded,  from  his  entrance  into  Aries  to  the  time  of  Christ,  was 
thirty-five  degrees,  which  make  or  answer  to  two  thousand,  five  hundred,  and  twenty  years :  35  X 
72zi55SO.  The  time  the  Brahmins  fixed  for  their  Cali  Yug  and  the  entrance  of  the  Sun  into  Aries 
being  3100  years  B.  C,  3100— 2520zzoSO,  which  was  their  mistake.  But  5SO-f-79ir8,  with  a 
remainder  of  4,  which,  Usher's  mistake  corrected,  is  576,  the  exact  number  it  ought  to  be. 
The  eight  degrees  answer  to  the  eight  days  which  the  solbtice,  in  the  time  of  Ciusar,  was  wrong. 

In  or  about  the  year  3100  was  a  remarkable  conjunction  of  the  planets,  as  Sir  W.  Jones,  Buill}, 
and  others,  profess  to  have  ascertained.  This  is  the  pivot  on  which  all  the  Brahmins'  calculations 
hinge ;  and  as  the  MODERN  Brahmins  reckoned  by  the  Neros  to  the  time  of  Christ,  without  under- 
standing the  principle  of  the  calculation,  tbey  thus  got  wrong  in  their  solstices  eight  days. 

The  difficulty  which  Figulus l  and  others  found  in  making  out  the  true  time  arose  from  inat- 
tention to,  or  ignorance  of,  the  necessity  of  making  the  requisite  intercalation  $  and  the  error  had 
reached,  in  the  time  of  Figulus,  to  within  a  very  few  years  of  an  entire  saeculum*  This  would 
increase  the  difficulty,  and,  in  fact,  would  render  the  number  of  cycles  doubtful, — that  is,  whether 
the  new  cycle — that  of  Christ — was  the  ninth  or  the  tenth.  This  accounts  for  Virgil's  policy  in 
writing  in  such  an  equivocal  manner,  that  his  prophecy  might  answer  either  to  the  latter  part  of 
the  current  cycle,  or  to  the  last  cycle. 

Now,  I  apprehend,  after  the  philosophers  found  that  the  cycle  of  the  Neros  made  a  cycle  with 
the  number  of  years  of  the  precession  in  ten  signs  of  the  zodiac,  namely,  in  91,600  years,  they 
adopted  the  plan,  in  calculating  their  time,  of  starting  from  the  flood  or  the  Call  Yug,  both  back- 
wards and  forwards,  as  a  kind  of  fulcrum,  and  of  deducting  the  sum  of  2160  years,  the  precession 
for  one  sign,  because  at  that  period  a  new  system  of  calculation  necessarily  began  upon  a  new 
principle.  The  former  calculation  was  made  upon  the  cycle  of  360,  the  days  in  a  year,  and  the 
lunar  time  of  30  days  in  a  month.  These  two  formed  a  perfect  cycle :  no  intercalations  would  be 
wanted :  and  all  the  knowledge  of  astronomy,  as  far  as  was  of  any  consequence  to  the  first  inha- 
bitants, would  be  known  and  reduced  to  the  smallest  space  imaginable.  They  found,  that  if  they 
calculated  backwards  by  the  periods  of  years  of  precession  in  a  sign,  (as  they  must  in  future  cal- 
culate forwards  by  them,  if  they  meant  to  keep  their  time  correctly,)  these  periods  would  exactly 
agree  backwards  with  the  calculation  forwards  ;  so  that  they  could  calculate  backward  before  the 
Cali  Yug,  as  correctly  as  forwards  from  it,— the  360  days  in  a  year  making  a  perfect  cycle,  and 
these  years,  in  periods  of  360  or  790  or  2160  years,  making  a  perfect  c>cle  backward,  in  a  circle 
to  the  21,600  the  years  in  ten  signs,  as  they  were  obliged  to  calculate  forwards  to  the  same 
period.  In  short,  by  this  contrivance,  notwithstanding  the  gieat  change  in  the  lengths  of  the 

1  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  185-187,  2,33, 


OBSERVATIONS.  J4| 

year  and  month,  which  I  shall  explain  hereafter,  the  calculations  backwards  would  be  perfectly 
assimilated  to  those  forwards,  and  would,  supposing  the  equinox  to  precede  only  about  50"  in  h 
year,  or  on  the  average  or  in  mean  time  to  precede  after  this  rate,  and  that  the  Soli-lunar  period 
of  600  years  was  correct,  be  also  perfectly  true.  Thus  they  would  be  able  to  calculate  by  signs 
round  the  circle  of  the  zodiac  backwards,  as  they  did  in  like  manner  by  signs  forwards,  and,  coi- 
rectly  too,  for  any  length  of  time.  It  is  also  very  worthy  of  observation,  that  the  cycle  of  SOX) 
makes  a  perfect  cycle  with  the  great  precessional  one  of  25,990  years. 

Now,  if  the  reader  will  examine  caiefully  the  different  astronomical  calculations  which  I  have 
made  in  the  fifth  book  of  the  first  volume,  he  will  find  no  satisfactory  reason  given  for  the  fact  of 
the  different  arithmetical  sums  coming  out  correct  from  the  calculations,  the  bum  of  S160  yearb 
being  first  deducted  ;  though  the  coincidence  of  the  numbers  shewed  that  it  could  not  be  the 
effect  of  accident,  but  that  they  must  be  true,  whatever  might  be  the  cause.  Here  we  find  the 
whole  satisfactorily  explained,  and  an  adequate  reason  assigned  for  the  conduct  of  the  astrono- 
mers. Very  certain  I  am  that  I  shall  prove,  all  the  ancients  believed  that  the  year  was  originally 
only  360  days  long.  Whether  this  be  true  or  false,  I  contend,  thdt  I  have  raised  the  very  highest 
probability,  that,  in  their  calculations  of  time,  they  proceeded  upon  this  belief,  and  that  its  admit- 
ted duration  had  changed  in  a  later  day. 

The  lustrums  five  and  six  were  the  roots  of  all  the  calculations*  The  five  was  the  lustrum 
when  the  year  was  360  days  long :  the  six  when  it  came  to  be  365.  In  the  first  case  the  preces- 
sion of  the  equinoxes  was  supposed  to  have  taken  place  after  the  rate  of  36"  in  a  degree,  and  of 
36,000  years  in  the  circle.  Thus  we  find  the  sum  of  36,000  to  be  called  the  great  year.  (The 
Neros  600,  and  the  Millenium  6000,  make  cycles  with  this.)  In  the  second  case,  when  the  pre- 
cession was  supposed  to  take  place  in  50",  and  25,9"20  in  the  circle  5  25,920  was  the  great  year. 
But  with  this  the  former  number  will  not  make  a  cycle  j  therefore,  as  said  formerly,  ten  signs 
%vere  taken,  which,  at  50"  to  a  degiee,  and  72  to  a  sign,  make  21,600  ;  and  with  this,  both  the  jive 
and  $?"#,  and  the  old  numbers,  all  make  cycles.  Now,  it  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  the  five  and 
its  multiples  make  a  cycle  with  the  great  precessional  year  36,000 ;  and  the  six  and  its  multiples 
make  a  cycle  with  the  great  artificial  year  of  21,600,  the  united  cycle  of  the  two,  with  the  great 
year  of  36,000,  and  with  the  still  greater  artificial  cycle  of  432,000,  as  well  as  with  the  real  cycle 
of  -25,920. 

The  Romans  must  have  had  two  computations  of  time,  both  of  which  were  wrong.  For,  besides 
the  misplacing  of  the  solstice,  which  we  have  learnt  from  Columella,  their  "year  differed  by  an 
"  excess  of  67  days  from  the  true  time!' l  Now,  although  some  of  their  festivals,  which  they  did 
not  understand,  might  be  wrong  67  days,  we  cannot  believe  that  the  solstice  could  get  so  far 
wrong.  We  may  almost  as  soon  suppose  they  would  mistake  the  equinox  for  the  solstice. 

It  is  worthy  of  observation  that  the  persons  employed  by  Caesar  were  the  Chaldeans,  and  that 
these  mere  fortune-tellers  and  conjurers,  as  our  priests  call  them,  were  so  well  informed,  that  they 
could  fix  the  time  of  the  solstice  to  half  an  hour— to  half  past  one  in  the  morning.  It  is  evident 
these  Calidei,  or  Chaldeans,  or  Casi- deans,  or  Chasidim,  or  Mathematici,  or  Templars,  or  Rosi- 
crucian*.,  or  Nousareans,  or  Mandaites,  or  lohnites,  or  Essenseans,  or  Carmelites,  or  Freemasons, 
were  then  the  best  calculators  and  astronomers  in  the  world. 

Columella  *  says,  "  Nor  am  I  ignorant  of  Hipparchus's  computation,  which  teaches,  that  the 
"  solstices  and  equinoxes  do  not  happen  in  the  eighth,  but  in  the  first  degree  of  the  signs.  But 
"  in  this  rural  discipline,  I  now  follow  the  calculations  of  Eudoxus  and  Meton,  and  those  of  ancient 
*<  astronomer*,  which  arc  adapted  to  the  public  sacrifices  $  because  husbandmen  are  both  better 

'  Niebiihr,  Vol.  I.  p  208,  ed.  Walter.  *  Book  ix,  Ch.  xiv. 


142  OBSERVATIONS. 

lC  acquainted  with  that  old  opinion  which  has  been  commonly  entertained :  nor  yet  is  the  nicenes& 
"  and  exactness  of  Hipparchus  necessary  to  the  grosser  apprehensions  and  scanty  learning  of 
"  husbandmen."  From  this  it  is  evident,  that  the  festivals  were  not  fixed  with  niceness,  to  use 
the  words  of  Columella;  but,  we  may  fairly  suppose,  in  whole  numbers,  which  will  justify  me  in 
doing  the  same.  Thus,  like  Colurnella,  I  have  calculated  roughly  and  by  round  numbers  j  but  this 
Mas  not  the  way  the  Chaldean  magicians  or  conjurors  reckoned.  They  formed  their  calculation  to 
ti  minute — to  thirty  minutes  past  one  in  the  morning ;  consequently  they  must  have  known  that  it 
would  be  necessary  to  intercalate  one  day  and  part  of  a  day  every  600  years :  and  this  I  have  no 
doubt  that  they  did,  wherever  they  had  the  regulation  of  the  festivals  in  their  Judsean,  secret,  ma- 
sonic, Xpjer-tiaii  festivals. 

If  my  reader  have  attended  closely  to  what  he  has  read,  he  will  have  observed  that  there  is  an 
error  of  a  day  and  a  part  of  a  day,  about  one- eighth  of  a  day,  every  (iOO  years,  and  that  I  have  only 
accounted  for  the  day. 

This  remaining  error  I  shall  now  account  for.  I  think  it  will  not  be  denied  that  I  have  unveiled 
a  pretty  large  number  of  curious  mythoses  ;  but  the  most  curious  of  all  I  have  now  to  unfold.  WP 
have  seen  that  all  the  Buddhas,  Cristuas,  Salivahanas,  Adonibes,  Atyses,  Mithras,  Bacchuses* 
Herculeses,  were  put  to  death  and  rose  again  from  the  grave,  part  certainly,  and  all  probably,  aftei 
three  days,1  to  life  and  immortality.  We  have  seen  from  the  unquestionable  testimony  of  the 
Roman  Saint,  Bishop,  and  Martyr,  Irenseus,  that  the  real  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  not  put  to  death. 
But  yet,  according  to  the  Romish  gospel  histories,  he  was  actually  put  to  death  by  crucifixion. 
In  the  gospel  of  the  Romish  Jesus,  we  merely  have  the  account  that  he  was  a  part  of  three  days  in 
the  grave.  But  tradition  informs  us  that  he  was  buried  on  the  evening  of  Friday ;  he  continued 
in  the  tomb  till  midnight  of  Saturday  was  past,  and  rose  the  moment  the  morning  of  Sunday  com- 
menced. Thus  he  occupied  the  tomb  in  three  successive  days,  though  for  only  one  day  of  24 
hours,  and  a  part  of  a  day  of  24  hours'  duration.  This  professed  entombment  is  meant  figura- 
tively to  represent  a  certain  time  that  was  considered  necessary  to  be  intercalated,  in  the  neros,  us 
I  shall  now  describe. 2 
There  is  an  error  in  the  Soli-lunar  cycle  of  the  Neros  of  one  day  and  a  part  of  a  day  in  every 

1  In  the  case  of  Oriais  in  Egypt,  and  of  St  Denys  or  Bacchus  in  Gaul,  whose  limbs  were  scattered  in  forty  placet, 
and  sought  forty  days,  I  apprehend  the  last  three  were  the  days  of  the  processions  only— the  days  on  which  the  parti, 
of  generation  were  sought. 

*  Whether  or  not  the  Author  be  light  in  his  conclusion,  the  following  anecdote,  in  Farrar's  Life  of  Howard,  the 
Philanthropist,  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  oriental  custom  of  reckoning  days:  "Mr.  Houaid  found,  on  arming  at 
Constantinople,  in  1786,  that  the  chief  topic  of  the  day  was  a  summary  and  sanguinary  punishment  which  had  recently 
been  inflicted  on  the  grand  chamberlain  The  particulars  were  these  —the  grand  vizier  sent  one  day  foi  the  grand 
chamberlain,  who  had  the  charge  of  supplying  the  city  with  bread.  Yielding  immediate  obedience  to  the  summons, 
this  officer  arrived  at  the  palace  of  the  minister  in  great  state;  and  being  mtioduced  into  his  pieserice,  was  asked  vvh\ 
the  bread  was  so  bad  He  answered  that  the  harvest  had  been  but  a  \ery  indifferent  one.  *  Why,'  continued  the  viziei , 
apparently  satisfied  with  this  excuse,  *  is  the  weight  so  short?'  *  That/  teplied  the  chamberlain,  *  might  have  happened 
by  accident  to  two  or  three,  amongst  such  an  immense  number  of  loaves  as  are  required  for  the  supply  of  so  huge  u 
city  /  but  he  assured  his  highness  that  greater  care  should  be  taken  for  the  future.  Without  further  observation  the 
\izier  ordeied  him  to  quit  his  presence;  but  no  sooner  was  he  obeyed,  than  he  commanded  an  executioner  to  follow 
the  unhappy  man  and  strike  off  his  head  in  the  street,  where  his  body  was  publicly  exposed  for  a  day  and  a  half,  with 
three  light  loaves  beside  it  to  denote  his  crime 

"  When  the  circumstance  was  i  elated  to  Mr.  Howard,  he  was  told  that  the  chamberlain's  body  had  lain  three  days  in 
the  street,  on  which  he  expressed  his  surprise  that  it  had  not  bred  a  contagion,  and  then  he  Jeamt  that  m  point  of  fact 
it  had  not  been  left  so  long,  as  they  were  not  entire  days.  It  was  evening  when  the  head  \vas  struck  off,  and  this  wa^ 
-eckoned  one  day,  it  remained  the  whole  of  the  second,  and  was  removed  early  on  the  succeeding  morning,  which  was, 
accounted  the  third  day.  The  eastern  mode  of  computation  is  the  same  now  that  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  ctucifixiou 
and  burial  of  Jesus  Christ,  when  three  days  were  similarly  reckoned."  Pp.  195—197.  Editor. 


OBSERVATIONS.  143 

cycle,  as  we  have  seen  5  and  this  space  of  time  it  is  necessary  to  intercalate  every  600  years,  in 
order  to  correct  the  error.  This  required  intercalation  is  figuratively  described  by  the  burial  of  all 
these  Gods,  and  of  Jesus  Christ.  Every  600  years  they  were  put  to  death,  lemained  buried  a  dav 
and  part  of  a  day,  after  which  they  rose  again  to  new  life — a  new  six  hundred  years  commenced — 
a  new  Phoenix  arose  from  its  ashes. 

We  have  before  seen  that  the  year  of  the  sun  was  600  years;  that  the  Phoenix1  lived  600 
years ;  that  the  Phen  or,  in  Irish,  Phcnniche,  meant  600  years.  As  much  as  the  cycle  got  wrong, 
it  was  necessary  to  intercalate.  For  this  period  the  God  was  buried.  In  the  six  thousand  years 
he  would  be  mystically  or  feignedly  buried  ten  times.  And  I  have  very  little  doubt,  that  when 
the  old  Phoenix  burnt  itself,  a  certain  time  elapsed  before  the  young  one  arose  from  its  ashes.  But 
it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  priests  would  tell  us  this,  if,  indeed,  they  knew  it.  I  have 
somewhere  read,  I  believe  in  the  work  of  Mr.  Faber5  a  work  which  has  no  indexes,  though  paid  for 
by  subscription,  that,  in  the  ceiemonies  of  the  initiation  into  the  mysteries  of  Buddha,  a  man  was 
supposed  to  be  killed  ;  and,  after  lying  on  the  ground  some  time,  was  simulated  to  be  raised  from  the 
dead.  This  is  very  like  the  practice  in  the  Romish  church  of  imitating,  in  their  ceremonies,  all 
the  recorded  acts  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Chribt.  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  resurrection  described 
in  Georgius  and  in  my  plates,  figure  14. 

The  same  ceremony  is  stated  by  the  Abb£  Bazin*  to  have  taken  place  in  the  mysteries  of 
Eleusis.  He  says,  "  These  mysteries  were,  according  to  Tertullian>  somewhat  tarnished  by  the 
"  ceremony  of  regeneration.  It  was  necessary  for  the  initiated  to  appear  to  revive  5  it  was  the 
"  symbol  of  the  new  kind  of  life  he  intended  to  lead.  A  crown  was  presented  to  him,  which  he 
"  trod  under  foot ;  the  Hierophantes  then  drew  forth  the  sacred  knife,  and  the  initiated,  whom  he 
"  pretended  to  strike,  also  pretended  to  fall  dead  at  his  feet :  after  which  he  appeared  to  rise 
"  again,  as  it  were,  from  the  dead,  A  remnant  of  this  ancient  ceremony  still  exists  among  the 
66  Freemasons."  In  the  Gospels  we  have  the  following  statements  respecting  the  burial  of  Jesus  : 
Matthew  (xxvii.  57,  62)  says,  "  When  the  even  was  come  : — now  the  next  day  that  followed  the 
the  day  of  preparation,"  &c.  Mark  (xv.  42),  "  Now  when  the  even  was  come,  because  it  was  the 
preparation,  that  is,  the  day  before  the  Sabbath."  Luke  (xxiii.  53,  54),  "  And  he  [Joseph  of 
Arimathea]  took  it  down,  and  wrapped  it  in  linen,  and  laid  it  in  a  sepulchre  that  was  hewn  in 
stone,  wherein  never  man  was  laid  before.  And  that  day  was  the  preparation,  and  the  sabbath 
drew  on."  John  (xix.  42),  "  There  laid  they  Jesus,  therefore,  because  of  the  Jews'  preparation 
day:9 

The  Gospels  all  agree  that  Jesus  rose  on  the  Sunday  morning,  and  pointedly  and  unnecessarily, 
unless  there  was  a  particular  meaning  intended  to  be  conveyed,  say,  "very  early  before  day-light." 
But  the  tradition  is,  that  he  rose  the  moment  after  midnight  of  the  second  day.  At  Rome,  in 
some  of  the  churches,  the  ceremonies  begin  at  this  time,  and  in  Syria,  in  commemoration  of  the 
resurrection  of  Adonis  $  and  now,  in  the  same  place  and  at  the  same  time,  the  ceremonies  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  begin  to  be  celebrated. 

If  the  calculation  of  the  mythos  be  commenced  on  the  moment  of  the  conjunction  of  the  sun 
and  moon,  and  the  neros  last  600  years,  28h  l'  42" ,  there  must  be,  to  make  it  come  right,  an 
intercalation  in  every  neros  or  600  years,  of  28h'  lm'  42s-  Then  this  will  make  the  life  of  the  sun 
end  precisely  in  such  a  manner,  in  such  a  part  of  a  day,  as  will  be  -28h-  lm'  418<  before  a  third  day 
begins,  making  it  go  one  second  into  the  third  day  to  complete  the  28h*  lm*  42**.  Thus  the  reason 


1  The  Gieek  woid  </>aii/ew  or  Qatm  to  shine  came  from  the  name  of  the  sun  <£wcr6QO,  or  ^qw:r6 

2  Translation  by  Wood  Gandell,  p.  220. 


144  OBSEKVATIOrsS. 

why  he  is  in  the  grave,  as  it  ib  called,  three  dayb,  is  apparent.  The  Millenium  cycle  was  supposed 
to  have  begun  at  such  an  hour  and  minute  of  the  day  on  which  the  sun  first  entered  Taurus  at  the 
vernal  equinox,  as  would  make  the  eighth  cycle  or  neros  end  at  an  hour  which  may  be  found  by 
close  examination  of  the  history.  It  is  said  that  Jebus  vuis  buried  before  the  sabbath  began;  that 
would  be  before  six  on  Friday  evening.  Then  if  he  were  the  shortest  time  possible  in  the  grave, 
to  be  consistent  with  the  history,  he  would  be  there  from  six  to  twelve,  or  the  last  six  hours  of 
Fiiday,  twenty-four  hours  of  Saturday,  and  say  one  second  of  Sunday,  and  he  would  rise  very  early, 
ah  the  text  says,  on  Sunday  morning.  This  makes  one  day,  six  hours,  in  the  grave.  Now  what 
ib  the  time  necessary  to  be  intercalated  to  correct  the  error  to  a  second  of  time  ?  It  is  one  day, 
four  hours,  one  minute,  forty-two  seconds.  Then  the  authors  of  the  mythos  were  in  error  the 
difference  between  ld  4h-  lm*  4-Zs  and  ld-  6h  Om-0s  .  This  is  lh  58m-  18s-,  which,  on  7421  luna- 
tionb,  the  number  there  are  in  the  cycle,  makes  an  error  in  the  moon's  period  of  somewhat  less 
than  one  secomd.  This,  I  think,  is  bringing  the  matter  pretty  nearly  to  a  point. 

If  the  reader  look  back  to  Volume  I  p  175,  he  will  find  the  Brahma  period  stated  to  begin  3164 
jeais  before  Chribt.  We  will  try  to  find  how  this  arose.  By  calculating  backwards  and  allowing 
a  day  and  part  of  a  day  for  the  error  every  six  hundred  years,  the  calculators  made,  in  the  eight 
neroses,  wtw*,  but  not  ten  days:  thus  9x72=648 +2 160-2808 +360-3 168— 4=3164.  This  seems 
to  me  to  be  a  real  arithmetical  proof  of  the  truth  of  my  explanation  of  the  three  days,  or,  mon* 
correctly,  the  day  and  part  of  a  day  in  the  giave. 


From  Taurus  to  Aries 2160 

Aries  to  Pisces 2160 

Pisces  to  Jesus  Christ 360 l 

9x72 , 648 


3164 
2160 

5324 


5328 
4 

5324 

The  history  of  the  sun,  I  repeat,  is  the  history  of  Jesus  Christ,  The  sun  is  born  on  the  25th  of 
December,  the  birth-day  of  Jesus  Clmst.  The  first  and  the  greatest  of  the  labours  of  Jefau^ 
Chu^t  is  his  victory  over  the  serpent,  the  evil  principle,  or  the  devil.  In  his  first  labour  Hercules* 
jsti angled  the  serpent,  as  did  Cristna,  Bacchus,  &c.  This  is  the  sun  triumphing  over  the  power* 
of  hell  and  darkness ;  and,  as  he  increases,  he  prevaiU,  till  he  is  crucified  in  the  heavens,  or  is 
decussated  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  (according  to  Justin  Martyr,  2)  vihen  he  pasbes  the  equator  at 
the  vernal  equinox.  But  before  he  rises  he  is  dead  for  one  day  and  about  four  hours.  This  is 
nearly  the  time  necessary  to  be  intercalated  every  six  hundred  years,  to  make  the  calculation  come 
ri^ht ,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  day  he  rises  again  to  life  and  immortality.  The  twelve  labourb 
of  Hercules  are  his  labours  in  passing  through  the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  which  are  so  similar  to  the 


1  Mr.  Bentley  states,  p  52,  that  the  sun  entered  Pisces  at  the  vernal  equinox,  746  years  B  C,  He  is  here  in  a  great 
mi  or,  01  Csesai  and  Sosigenes  weie  in  a  great  error  in  fixing  the  solstice  to  the  25th  of  December;  and  our  globe** 
aie  equally  in  error  now  in  fixing  the  equinox  to  the  first  or  thirtieth  of  Aquarius.  This  seems  a  mibtakc  of  Mr  Bent- 
ley's  \\hieh  I  cannot  comprehend  The  sun  certainly  only  entered  the  sign  Pisces  five  degrees,  or  5x7^— 360  ycais 
B  C.  I  will  not  assert  the  fact,  but  I  have  very  little  doubt  that  the  intentional  fraud  Mi,  Bentley  bpeakb  of  in  the 
Brahmin  astionomeis,  all  aiose  from  the  mistake  of  the  576  years,  and  the  neglect  of  the  inteicaLiry  days,  of  the  neces- 
sity for  which  the  modern  Brahmins  weie  ignorant 

*  See  Vol  I.  p.  789. 


OBSERVATIONS.  145 

history  of  Jesus  Chribt,  as  to  induce  the  reverend,  pious,  and  orthodox  Parkhurst  to  declare  them 
types  of  what  the  real  Saviour  was  to  do  and  suffer.  These  celestial  images  are  what  induced  the 
learned  Alphonso  the  Great  to  declare,  that  the  whole  history  of  Jesus  Christ  might  be  read  in  the 
stars. 

No  doubt  this  explanation  of  the  three  days'  descent  into  hell  will  be  separated  from  the  other 
explanations  of  the  mythos,  and  thus,  taking  it  alone,  it  will  be  represented  as  extremely  ridiculous. 
But,  I  ask,  What  were  the  entombment  and  resurrection  of  Bacchus,  Atys,  Apollo  of  Miletus,  of 
Adonis,  of  Cristna,  of  Buddha,  &c,,  &c.  >  Were  these  real  deaths  and  resurrections,  or  astronomi- 
cal mythoses  ? 

In  this  book  I  think  I  have  proved,  that  every  rite,  ceremony,  and  doctrine,  which  is  found  in 
the  Christian  religion,  was  a  close  copy  of  that  of  the  Gentiles.  Mr.  Mosheim1  is  obliged  to  admit 
this,  nearly  to  the  extent  here  stated,  and  he  endeavours  to  disguise  and  palliate  it  by  pretending 
'  that  they  were  taken  into  the  Christian  religion.  But  as  I  have  proved  that  every  rite,  ceremony, 
and  doctrine,  of  the  Romish  church  is  taken  from  the  Heathens,  and  existed  before  the  time  of 
Jesus  Christ,  I  beg  leave  to  ask,  Where  is  the  remainder  which  is  not  Pagan,  and  which  is  to  con- 
stitute the  Christianity  of  the  present  day?  The  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ,  from  his  own  mouth, 
I  shall  exhibit  in  a  future  book,  in  its  native  and  beautiful  simplicity,  unalloyed  with  Pagan, 
Paulite,  Romish,  Lutheran,  or  Calvinistic  nonsense. 

That  which  I  have  written  is  intended  for  the  use  of  philosophers,  as  I  have  said  in  my  Preface. 
How  should  the  generality  of  mankind,  occupied  in  the  affairs  of  life,  be  expected  to  understand 
such  a  book  ?  No,  no ;  let  them  attend  to  their  secular  concerns,  count  their  beads,  and  say  their 
prayers,  resting  content  with  the  religion  of  their  ancestors,  and  be  assured  that  God  is  equally 
present  with  the  pious  Hindoo  in  the  temple,  the  Jew  in  the  synagogue,  the  Mohammedan  in  the 
mosque,  and  the  Christian  in  the  church.  Peter  said,  very  wisely,  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God 
is  no  respecter  of  persons  ;  but  in  evert/  nation  he  that  feareth  him,  and  worketh  righteousness,  is 
accepted  with  him.* 

I  must  fairly  admit,  that  I  cannot  read  what  I  have  written  without  an  indescribable  melancholy. 
In  what  a  state  of  delusion  have  four-fifths  of  mankind  been  kept,  and  still  are  kept,  by  the  dis- 
honesty of  the  remainder  5  and,  in  the  teeth  of  my  humble  and  feeble  efforts,  I  fear  always  will  be 
kept!  But,  at  all  events,  I  have  done  my  duty ;  I  have  endeavoured,  with  no  little  labour,  to 
draw  aside  the  veil,  I  know  what  I  deserve ;  I  fear,  I  know  what  I  shall  receive,  from  my  self* 
sufficient  and  ignorant  countrymen.  But  yet,  a  new  sera  is  rising.  There  still  is  hope  in  the 
bottom  of  the  box.  But  one  word  more  I  must  say  of  the  Eternal  City,  before  I  close  this  article  5 
it  may  serve  for  a  warning. 

It  is  a  striking  circumstance  that  the  Pagans  themselves  boasted  of  the  greatness  of  Rome,  not 
only  as  the  capital  of  the  empire,  but  as  the  head  of  their  religion,  of  which  it  was  the  centre ;  on 
account  of  which  it  was  called  by  Atheneus  Oufai/OTroXiv,  or  the  Holy  City,  Ruma  Mamma,  the 
residence  of  the  Gods.3  It  was  called  the  Goddess  of  the  earth  and  of  the  nations,  at  the  very 
moment  that  the  axe  was  laid  to  its  root,  and  that,  by  the  treason  of  Constautine,  its  altars  were 
about  to  be  overthrown,  its  religion  destroyed,  and  it  was  to  be  degraded  to  the  rank  of  a  provin- 

1  Comm.  Cent,  ii.  Sect.  xxxvL  n. 

*  Acts  x.  34, 35.— For  most  of  the  articles  in  the  above  parallel  between  the  rites  of  the  ancient  and  modern  Romans, 
I  am  indebted  to  a  small  treatise  lent  me  by  my  friend  Ed.  Upham,  Esq.,  entitled,  "Les  Confonnitez  des  Ceremonies 
Modernes  avec  les  Anciennes.  Jmprime'  PAn  1667* 

3  Lucan,  lib.  i.,  Dedm  Sedes,  Mart  lib.  xii,  Epigrorum.  8 ;  Claud,  de  Laud,  Stillic. 
vox*  n.  u 


lift  OBSERVATIONS, 

dat  town.  Thiw,  at  this  time,  when  loaded  with  corruption,  its  religion  rotten  to  the  core,  and 
evidently  at  its  labt  gabp,  still,  as  in  former  times,  it  calls  itself  eternal;  its  pompous,  empty, 
tatvdrj  cardinals,  bending  beneath  ermine,  fat,  and  ignorance,  waddle  about  their  grass-grow1- 
streets  and  crumbling  ruins,  which  would  long  since  have  yielded  to  the  pest  which  surround* 
then',  had  not  the  remnant  of  the  fine  arts  of  Greece  procured  to  it  a  temporary  respite.  But, 
proud  Rome,  thy  race  is  nearly  run— thy  day  is  nearly  over,  One  century  more,  and,  like  haughty 
Babylon,  tbe  curious  stranger,  probably  with  fear  and  trembling,  will  ramble  round  thy  ruins,  and 
say.  This  w«s  the  eternal  city !  Here  was  Rome ! 

Sure  ^  the  shatt  that  slayeth  in  the  night 
The  pestilence  glides  slowly,  robed  in  light, 
All-glorious  Italy,  o'er  thy  fair  champaign 
The  smiling  fiend  extends  hei  silent  reign, 
And  desolation  follows,  Lo1  she  stands 
'to  the  proud  capital,  with  noiseless  hantK 
Showering  the  secret  rum  on  the  dome 
Oi  thy  *reat  temple,  everlasting  Rome ' 

HERBERT'S  jPw  Mk  Pittw,  p,  I1!!, 


(    147 


BOOK   IIL 

CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN  OF  LETTERS.  —  MOON'S  PERIOD.  —  NAMES  OF  LETTERS. —  BOUCHER.— DR.  WAIT  ON  SANSCRIT.— 
CYCLE  OF  FOURTEEN.  —  THOTH.  —  OM.  HOMER.  —  TARGUMS.— DR.  YOUNG.  SOL.— JOSEPH,  PROTEUS. 
STALLS. — SOLOMON.  SINDI.  PETER.  — CRYPTOGRAPHY,  INDIAN. — VOWEL  POINTS. — ACROSTIC.  ANA- 
GRAM. METATHESIS.  THE  NUMBER  NINE, — ARABIC  LETTERS.— THE  GOD  XANGTL  —  eE*fc  /**«,  ev.— SIGNETS. 
—SIGMA  TAU.— -ADAM.  GENESIS, 

1.  THE  following  book  will  chiefly  consist  of  a  development  of  the  mode  in  which  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  the  various  branches  of  human  science,  the  art  of  writing,  was  discovered  and  brought 
to  perfection.  But  before  my  reader  begins  to  examine  it,  I  must  beg  him  to  reperuse  and  recon- 
sider the  Preliminary  Observations  in  Volume  I.,  which  have  relation  to  the  origin  of  letters  and 
figures.  Those  Observations,  chiefly  taken  from  my  work  on  the  CELTIC  DRUIDS,  I  inserted  there, 
for  the  purpose  of  assisting  in  this  investigation. 

When  I  go  back  to  the  most  remote  periods  of  antiquity  into  which  it  is  possible  to  penetrate, 
I  find  clear  and  positive  evidence  of  several  important  facts.  First,  no  animal  food  was  eaten — no 
animals  were  sacrificed. l  Secondly,  it  is  recorded,  and  it  seems  probable,  that  the  Gods  had  no 
names,  and  that  no  icons  were  used  \ 2  and  almost  all  ancient  nations  had  a  tradition,  that  they 
once  possessed  sacred  writings  in  a  long-lost  language.  The  possessors  of  these  writings  and  this 
old  language,  I  think,  must  have  been  the  people  who  erected  the  Pyramids,  the  gigantic  stone 
circles,  and  the  other  Cyclopsean  buildings,  which  are  found  of  such  peculiar  character  and  size  all 
over  the  world.  The  language  of  these  nations,  or,  in  fact,  the  lost  language  which  they  used,  we 
will  now  try  to  discover — assuming,  that  it  was  the  first  written  language  of  man. 

In  the  Preliminary  Observations,  Section  31 — 47>  I  have  shewn  how  I  suppose  the  Latin? 
Etruscan,  or  Phoenician,  system  of  describing  numbers  by  right  lines  arose — each  number  described 
by  a  collection  of  these  lines,  having  had  the  name  of  a  tree  given  to  it,  I  find  my  opinion  on  this 
subject  strongly  supported  by  a  passage  of  Vallancey's,  which,  when  I  wrote  the  Preliminary  Ob- 
servations, I  had  oveilooked  or  not  observed.3  He  says,  "The  Romans  used  literary  characters 
"  as  numerals,  and  in  alphabetic  order  as  the  Chaldaeans  did,  so  late  as  Julius  Caesar's  time.  In 
"  the  sixth  century  a  Julian  kalendar  was  dug  itp  at  Rome,  on  which  the  days  of  the  month  were 
66  numbered  by  letters  in  alphabetic  order,  beginning  with  A  at  the  first  day  of  January,  B  to  the 
t€  second,  and  so  on  to  H,  or  the  eighth  day,  which  was  their  Nundina,  from  which  day  they 
«  began  again  with  ABCDEFGH,  instead  of  I.  II.  IIL  IV.  V.  VI.  VII.  VIII.,  which  were  the 
"  Phoenician  and  Palmyraean  vulgar  numerals/'4  If  we  could  be  certain  that  Palmyra  was  built 
by  Solomon  or  the  Jews,  we  should  have  a  very  good  reason,  indeed  I  may  say  a  certainty,  for 

1  Sacrifice— Sacrum  Festum— sacrificium. 

*  This  was  because  the  God  of  Wisdom,  or  the  wise  God,  was  worshiped. 
3  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  V.  p.  186.  4  Vide  Scaliger  de  Emend.  Temp.  p.  160, 

u2 


148  LETTERS. 

believing  that  the  right-lined  numbers  of  the  Phoenicians  were  also  those  of  the  Jews,    As  it  is, 
we  have  a  very  high  probability  that  they  were  so. 

Before  we  begin  the  following  speculation  we  will  suppose  that  man  had  advanced  so  far  as  to 
have  given  names  to  trees,  and  to  have  called  a  certain  tree  Elm,  another  tree  Birch,  and  others 
by  appropriate  appellations,  and  had  called  his  first  number,  described  by  the  mark  I,  Ailm,  and 
his  second  number,  desciibed  by  the  mark  II,  Beth  or  Birch,  &c.  In  this  case  I  would  denote  an 
idea  of  number,  viz.  one,  and  a  sound,  viz,  Ailm  ;  and  II  would  denote  an  idea  of  number,  viz.  two, 
and  a  sound,  viz.  Beth  ;  and  each  would  denote  a  tree  generally,  and  the  two  would  also  denote 
two  peculiar  trees,  as  distinguished  from  others,  viz.  the  Elm  and  Birch  :  so  each  arithmetical 
figure  or  little  collection  of  lines  would  have  five  significations.  It  would  denote  a  number,  a  tree 
generally,  a  Birch  tree,  and  a  sound;  and,  after  the  discovery  of  alphabetic  writing,  a  letter. 
Thus  there  would  be  a  language  like  what  the  Chinese  language  and  the  Runes  of  Scandinavia  are 
at  this  day.  That  is,  there  would  be  a  symbol  for  every  sound  or  name  of  a  thing,  for  the  thing 
itself,  and  for  a  number,  and  the  number  would,  by  association  of  ideas,  be  closely  connected  with 
leaves  and  trees.  Thus  this  language  of  symbols  would  have  five  meanings,  exactly  as  the 
language  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Tamuls  is  said  to  have  had  $  and  a  question  naturally  arises, 
whether  this  language  of  numeral  symbols  may  not  have  been  the  very  language  referred  to  by  the 
Tamulese,  as  that  in  which  their  sacred  books  were  written.  This  induces  me  to  make  a  few  ob- 
servations on  the  Tamul  language  before  I  proceed  further.  At  first,  the  distance  of  the  place  in 
which  we  find  the  Italian  and  the  Phoenician  right-lined  letters  or  figures,  from  the  country  of  the 
Tamuls,  South  India,  certainly  seems  very  great,  but  it  becomes  less,  when  it  it  is  recollected  that 
we  have  exhibited  individuals  miscalled  Christians,  but  who,  in  fact,  were  the  followers  of  Tammuz, 
in  South  India,  using  the  Pushto  language  of  Syria,  and  the  absolute  identity  of  the  worship  of  the 
fishes  in  both  countries. 

Dr.  Babington  says,  "  I  cannot  touch  on  the  Tamil  characters  without  remarking,  that  their  ex- 
"  treme  simplicity  seems  one  among  many  circumstances  which  indicate  that  the  language  is  of 
"  high  antiquity.  The  Sanscrit  of  the  South  of  India  is  written  in  characters  (the  Grant'ha)  de- 
"  rived  from  the  Tamil."  The  learned  Doctor  then  proceeds  to  give  reasons  for  the  Tamil  having 
an  independent  origin,  at  least  equal  in  antiquity  to  the  Sanscrit  itself.  *  The  name  of  the  Tamul 
language  is  Pushto,  and  the  root  of  this  word  Push,  which  I  shall  examine  hereafter,  means  a 
Jloiver,  and  this  system  of  letters  was  sixteen  in  number,  like  that  of  the  ancient  Jews.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  Chinese,  which  we  have  just  observed  is  a  language  of  symbols,  was  called  the  lan- 
guage of  flowers** 

I  consider  my  system  to  receive  no  small  support  from  the  following  passage  of  the  Universal 
Ancient  History:  *  "That  the  ancient  language  of  the  Chinese  was  pretty  nearly  related  to  the 
"  Hebrew,  and  the  other  tongues  which  the  learned  consider  as  dialects  of  it,  notwithstanding 
"  what  has  been  advanced  to  the  contrary,  we  own  ourselves  inclined  to  believe.  Ludovicus  Tho- 
"  massinus,  Philippus  Massonius,  Olaus  Rudbeckius,  and  Augustus  Pfeifferus,  seem  to  have 
"  proved  this  almost  to  a  demonstration."  M.  Balbf,  in  a  late  learned  work,  has  turned  the  argu- 
ments of  the  above-named  persons  and  our  Edinburgh  historians  into  ridicule;  but  my  experience 
teaches  me,  that  ridicule  is  never  had  recourse  to,  till  argument  fails.  Near  Gaya,  which  is  the 
place  where  Saca  or  Sacya  finished  his  doctrine  and  became  Buddha,  is  a  tree  called  by  the  Chinese 
Poo  te  choo  or  the  Tree  of  Knowledge. 4  The  Chinese  in  a  particular  manner  call  their  written 


*  Trans.  Asiat.  Soc.  Vol.  II.  Part  I.  p.  264,  8  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  482,  738,  750,  753,  775,  779. 

3  Vol,  XX.  p.  331.  4  Neuraan,  Catechism  Shaman,  p.  six, 


BOOK   III.   SECTION  2.  149 

language  the  flowery  language,  which  I  suppose  is  the  language  of  flowers  or  leaves.1  I  appre- 
hend this  comes  from  their  numeral  symbols  having  had  the  names  of  plants.2  This  tree  of 
knowledge  seems  to  have  been  the  Pushto,  or  Push,  or  Pote-sato.  Every  thing  tends  to  raise  a 
probability,  that  the  Chinese  and  the  Western  languages  of  symbols  were  the  same.  I  will  now 
proceed  with  my  theory,  but  I  shall  return  to  the  Pushto  and  Chinese  presently. 

After  man  had  used  the  right  lines  for  some  time,  he  would  discover  the  art  of  making  a  figure 
to  use  instead  of  the  collection  of  lines,  and  we  will  suppose  him  to  have  made  or  invented  twenty- 
eight  figures  for  the  twenty-eight  numbers  which  I  have  supposed  him  to  have  discovered;  how 
this  was  done  I  will  presently  explain.  We  have  an  example  of  this  in  the  tree  alphabet,  Table  I. 
Nos.  8  to  10,  and  in  the  Runic  alphabet,  in  THE  CELTIC  DRUIDS,  pp.  4,  5. 

We  have  thus,  I  think,  very  easily  found  how  it  is  probable  that  the  first  symbolical  system  oi 
writing  was  invented ;  but  we  have  not  yet  found  out  the  grand  secret— the  art  of  syllabic  or  al- 
phabetic writing— though  we  have  symbols  for  ideas  and  sounds.3 

On  this  art  Mr.  Astle4  says,  "Those  authors  whose  learning  and  ingenuity  entitle  them  to  the 
"  highest  respect,  and  whose  writings  have  furnibhed  many  useful  hints  towards  the  discovery  of 
"  alphabetic  characters,  have  not  filled  up  the  GREAT  CHASM  between  picture  writing  and  letters, 
"  which,  though  the  most  difficult  was  the  most  necessary  thing  for  them  to  have  done,  before 
"  they  could  attempt  to  account  for  the  formation  of  an  alphabet!"  Mr.  Astle  does  not  pretend 
to  have  filled  up  the  chasm.  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  do  it. 

2,  For  the  reasons  given  in  the  Preliminary  Observations,  (pp.  2,  3,)  I  cannot  have  any  doubt 
that  one  of  the  first  recorded  ideas  would  be  the  moon'-s  period,  for  which  the  twenty-eight  num- 
bers would  be  used,  and  perhaps  one  of  the  first  things  recorded  would  be  the  moon  herself,  by 
means  of  these  numbers.  In  this  case  the  record  would  be  described  by  XXVIII,  and  by  its 
component  parts  called  lod  (i.  e.  Yew)  pronounced  twice,  and  Eadha  (i.  e.  Aspin)  once,  and 
Ailm  (i.  e.  Elm)  three  times.  The  use  of  these  symbols  for  the  twenty-eight  numbers 
would  soon  lead  to  the  formation  of  arbitrary  signs  for  other  things  5  and,  in  short,  to  the  present 
Chinese  writing — a  mark  or  symbol  for  every  word  :  and  on  this  plan  the  Chinese  have  proceeded, 
exerting  all  their  ingenuity,  as  we  know,  for  thousands  of  years,  having  never  left  their  first 
habit,  or  changed  their  first  style  of  writing  3  the  reason  for  which,  I  think,  we  shall  discover 
hereafter. 

The  Western  nations  took  a  different  course,  and  fell  into  the  habit  of  making  their  letters  for 
sounds  instead  of  ideas  of  things,  and  thus  in  some  way,  which  we  will  try  to  find  out,  the  syllabic 
system  arose.  We  have  supposed  that  they  first  described  the  moon  by  marks  which  would  re- 
present twenty-eight  units,  that  they  would  write  it  thus  XXVIII $  and,  I  suppose,  that  they 
would  perform  the  operation  in  the  following  manner :  if  a  man  had  to  desire  his  neighbour  to  as- 
sist him  to  record  the  moon,  he  would  say,  make  on  the  stone  tablet  or  in  the  sand  the  mark  lod 
(yew),  and  he  would  make  X.  The  speaker  would  then  say,  make  or  mark  another  lod,  and  again 

1  Neuman,  Catechism  Shaman,  p.  63. 

2  It  seems  to  me  that  a  language  of  symbols  is  totally  unfit  to  communicate  proper  names,  for  which  reason  in  trans- 
lating  from  the  Chinese,  if  the  written  account  is  to  be  followed,  that  is,  the  idea  of  the  thing  to  be  given,  our  names 
ought  to  be  rendered  as  we  render  them.    If  the  sounds  used  by  the  Chinese  in  speaking,  for  our  names,  are  to  be  de- 
scribed, then  a  writer  may  copy  the  sounds  as  well  as  he  is  able.    I  suspect  it  is  from  a  wish  to  do  both,  that  Mr.  Neu- 
man has  rendered  proper  names  in  so  odd  a  manner.    England  is  called  Ywg  Iteih  le ;  the  Russians  are  called 
Go  lo  sse. 

3  In  the  symbols  for  sounds  began  the  first  idea  of  music,  an  art  considered  by  the  ancients,  and  particularly  by 
Pythagoras,  as  of  much  greater  importance  than  it  is  with  us  j  the  reason  for  which  I  shall  try  to  explain  by  and  by. 

4  Origin  and  Progress  of  Writing,  p*  11. 


150 


MOON'S  PEEIOD. 


he  would  mark  X;  now  make  an  Eadha,  and  he  would  make  V;  now  make  an  Ailm;  and  this 
order  would  be  repeated  twice,  and  he  would  make  three  lines  III,  and  it  would  form  our  XXVIIL 
But  neither  the  speaker  nor  the  writer  would  pronounce  this  word,  however  much  he  might  wish 
it,  except  by  repeating  the  names  of  the  trees— any  more  than  we  can  pronounce  10, 10, 5, 3,  as  a 
word.  Here,  however,  we  have  clearly  a  written,  but  an  unspoken  language  of  symbols. 

We  may  now  ask,  How  man,  in  the  experiment  which  we  have  supposed  him  to  try  on  the  moon, 
would  write  the  XXVIII  ?  We  know  from  history  that  it  would  not  be  horizontally,  but  perpen- 
dicularly, and  must  have  been  in  one  of  the  following  ways ; 


or 


or 


X 
X 


or 


X 

X 


Suppose  we  write  the  word  in  our  letters,  but  in  the  name  of  Celtic  Irish  trees,  and  in  the  abo\£ 
Etruscan  or  Italian  numbers  and  manner,  to  see  how  it  will  look.  We  shall  have  them  thus,  be- 
ginning  to  read  on  the  left  side  of  the  page : 


lod              I-H  od 

X 

X 

> 

[od             I-H  od 

X 

X 

0 

Eadha        ts  adha 
or       .. 
Ailm          >  ilm 

HH 

or 

I-H 

•^ 

fD 

Ailm           J>  ilm 

w 

W 

| 

Ailm           >  ilin 

~ 

f-H 

n* 

Ailm 

M 

><! 

- 

Ailm 

« 

X 

„ 

Uearn 

d 

<< 

-» 

lod 

or 

1-1  or 
i—  < 

x 

lod 

^ 

- 

* 

-    a 


P-  or 


Here,  writing  from  the  top  downwards,  and  turning  the  paper  to  read — accordingly  as  we  turn  it, 
to  right  or  left,  we  read  in  the  Sanscrit  and  Greek  manner,  or  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic  manner. 
Here  we  have  the  exact  mode  of  writing,  and  of  turning  the  paper,  which  is  yet  used  in  the  Syrian, 
that  is,  the  Pushto  or  Estrangelo  language,  as  I  learn  from  Dr.  Hagar — writing  it  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom,  but  turning  the  paper  and  reading  from  right  to  left.  This  is  confirmed  by  Vallancey, 
who  shews,  that  it  was  the  habit  of  the  Tartarian  nations,  and  quotes  Forster,  who  says,  tfc  The 
**  characters  and  mode  of  writing  of  the  Calmucks,  Moguls,  and  Mandschurians,  are  taken  from 
*fi  the  Uigurian,  and  these  again  from  the  Syrian.  These  Syrians  also  still  continue,  to  this  day,  to 
"£  write  exactly  as  the  Calmucks  do,  viz,  they  begin  at  the  top,  and  draw  a  line  down  to  the  bottom, 
*c  with  which  line  the  letters  are  in  contact  from  the  top  down  to  the  bottom  of  it  \  and  so  they 
*'  continue  to  write  one  line  after  the  other,  at  each  line  going  farther  on  to  the  right,  and  carrying 
f*  their  writing  from  the  top  to  the  bottom.  But  in  reading,  the  Moguls  and  Calmucks,  in  like  man- 
"  ner  as  the  Syrians,  turn  the  leaf  sideways  and  read  from  the  right  to  the  left*91  These  Calmucs 
and  Moguls,  who  have  characters  taken  from  the  Syrian,  that  is,  I  suppose,  the  Pushto,  are  gene- 
rally called  Tartars.  It  may  be  remembered,  that  we  formerly  found  the  Fossiones  Tartarum  in 
Italy,  the  country  in  which  we  found  the  first  right-lined  letter  figures  of  Syria  or  Phoenicia. 

Mr.  Forster  says,  "  This  perpendicular  way  of  writing  was  not  unknown  to  the  Greeks,  who 
Su  called  it,  as  Bayer  observes,  %<M[*><M  4>°P°^  and  was  usual  among  the  Syrians  too,  who,  accord- 
r"  ing  to  Abraham  Echelensis,  wrote  in  this  way/3  2  The  Greeks,  as  I  have  formerly  observed^ 
also  called  this  Tapocon. 


Footer's  Hist,  of  Voyages  and  Discoveries,  £c.,  note,  p.  106;  Vail.  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  VI.  pp.  1?3,  174. 
Br,  Hagar  on  the  Alphabet  of  Corea,  Or.  Col,  Volt  III.  j  VaUaacey,  Coll.  Hib.  Vol  VI.  p.  173, 


BOOK   III.   SECTION   2.  151 

"  Tapocon  Graci  soliti  sunt  appellate  genus  scribendi  deorsum  versus,  ut  nunc  detrorsum  scri- 
«  bimus." l 

And  it  appears  from  a  letter  of  Gen.  Vallancey's  to  General  Pownall,  that  the  ancient  Iribh  also 
wrote  in  the  perpendicular  line, 2  And  to  these  nations  I  have  to  add  the  Ethiopians.  et  Ethiopi- 
"  bus  olim  hunc  modum  (meaning  the  writing  from  top  to  bottom)  familiarem  quoque  fuisse, 
"  docet  Alexander  ab  Alexandra."3 

I  suppose  that  the  experiment  above  mentioned,  as  made  by  man  on  the  Moon's  cycle,  would, 
after  some  time,  lead  him  to  attend  to  the  sounds  of  the  trees'  names,  and  that  he  would  necessa- 
rily fall  on  the  sounds  of  the  first  letters  of  the  words,  and  be  induced  to  try  if  he  could  call  tbib 
word  XXVIII  by  them :  this  he  would  do  with  ease,  on  the  very  first  attempt,  by  pronouncing  (a 

XXVIII  XXVIII 

very  remarkable  word)  IIEA,  IIEAAA,  or  in  the  other  way,  IIVAA,  which  was  the  word 
cbaunted  by  the  Bacchantes  of  the  Greeks,  in  their  nocturnal  orgies — Evohe,  Evohe,  and,  in  short, 
Eva,  addressed  to"  the  Moon ;  and  also  the  word  Yeve  or  Yeye,  chaunted  by  the  Hindoos  in  their 
ceremonies.4  I  have  seldom  been  more  surprised  than  I  was  when  I  discovered  this  process  to 
bring  out  the  Moon's  name ;  but  yet,  when  I  consider  the  matter,  it  appears  only  natural  if  my 
theory  be  well  founded.  This  word  is  also  nothing  more  than  the  name  of  leue,  described  in. 
Genesis  by  the  word  in  the  feminine  gender  C3>rri?N  aleim.  In  this  extraordinary  word  we  have 
united,  first  the  monograms  of  God  /  and  //,  by  which  he  is  called  in  the  Chaldee  targurn,  and 
secondly  EVA  or  VA  mn  hue,  the  two  names  of  the  male  and  female  principles  of  nature.  We  may 
now  see  another  reason  why  the  letter  or  symbol  I  and  the  tenth  letter,  the  jod,  came  to  be  con- 
sidered the  symbol  of  the  Self-existent  Being,  and  how  the  irregular  verb  rvn  eie  or  n»r?  hie  of  the 
Hebrew  arose,  and  came  to  mean  self-existence, 

In  the  first  two  letters  of  this  word  »  ii  we  have  the  name  given  in  the  Annals  of  Ulster,  and  in 
gepulcral  monuments  now  existing,  to  the  island  of  loua  or  Columba,  in  Scotland,  the  name  of 
which  island,  I  shall  hereafter  shew,  meant  the  generative  power.  It  is  also  remarkable  that  this 
word  »  ii  is  always  used  in  the  Targum  for  the  name  of  the  Creator  instead  of  IEUE.  But  I  car. 
find  the  grammatical  explanation  of  it  in  no  Lexicon  or  Grammar,  and  I  believe  it  cannot  be  shewn 
that  it  belongs  to  any  verb  or  noun. 

I  believe  that  this  word,  from  its  connexion  with  letters,  which  I  have  just  pointed  out,  and  with 
the  soli*lunar  cycle  of  28,  came  to  be  the  name  of  the  Creator  of  the  male  generative  power,  and  the 
vau  to  be  the  name  of  the  female,  I  believe  that  the  jod  >  i  has  the  same  meaning  in  Hebrew  and 
English  5  and  that  the  word  w  which  we  use  for  the  third  person  singular  of  the  present  tense  of 
the  verb  personal  he  is,  must  be  the  first  person  singular  of  the  present  tense  of  the  Hebrew  help* 
ing  verb  w  is,  and  means  I  am,  or  I  fe,  being  the  same  as  I  exist.  It  probably  must  be  the  same 
in  the  first,  second,  and  third  persons  singular.  It  also  means,  Parkimrst  says,  substance,  and,  as 
we  might  expect,  from  the  word  which  describes  the  Self-existent  Being,  PROFOUND  WISDOM  ; 
and  this  I  consider  very  deserving  of  consideration. 

I  could  not  have  wished  for  any  thing  more  proper  for  my  purpose,  than  that  this  word  should, 
in  this  very  extraordinary  manner,  from  the  names  of  trees  and  the  powers  of  their  numbers  com- 
bined, thus  unexpectedly  give  out  the  name  of  the  moon  as  used  by  the  Bacchantes — the  name 


1  Festus  de  Verbor.  Signifiv  ,  Hagar,  Babyl.  Bricks,  p.  51.  *  Pownall  on  Ant.  p,  219. 

3  Genial.  Dier.  Lib.  ii.  Cap.  xxx.  Synopsis  Universes  Philologise,  Godofredo  Henselio,  p.  104.  Drummond  says, 
that  the  Ethiopian  language  was  Chaldaic.  Punic  Inscription,  III,  24, 403  75 ;  and  Vallancey  has  undertaken  to  prove 
the  ancient  Irish  to  be  a  colony  from  Phoenicia. 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  325, 452. 


152  NAMES   OF    LETTERS. 

described  by  numerals  having  the  number  of  the  cycle  peculiarly  appropriate  to  it,  which  I  shall 
presently  shew  that  till  the  other  heathen  Gods  also  had  ;  and  also  the  name  of  Jehovah  IEUE  the 
Chaldaean  God,  and  PROFOCJNTD  WISDOM.  It  amounts  to  a  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  system  much 
more  complete  than  could  have  been  reasonably  expected.  It  forms  a  very  strong  presumption 
that  I  have  actually  fallen  upon  the  very  process  which  must  have  taken  place.  But  this  will  be 
much  strenghtened  presently. 

3.  To  return  to  the  symbols.  After  man  discovered  the  art  of  recording  numbers  by  right  lines, 
in  the  way  already  described,  to  the  amount  of  twenty-eight,  he  would  endeavour  to  find  out  some 
means  of  recording  additional  numbers,  at  the  same  time  that  he  would  try  to  simplify  the  process ; 
and  I  suppose  that  after  making  one  line  thus,  F,  for  one9  he  would,  instead  of  making  two  lines  for 
the  two,  make  one  straight  lined  symbol  thus  J  ,  and  again  call  it  by  the  name  of  Beth,  the  name 
of  a  tree  (Birch);  that  for  three  III,  he  would  make  a  symbol  thus  "I,  and  call  it  Gort  (the  Ivy) ; 
that  for  four  IIII,  he  would  make  a  symbol  thus  A,  and  call  it  Duir  (the  Oak):  and  that  thus  he 
would  proceed  with  the  remainder  of  the  twenty- eight  numbers,  making  twenty-eight  single  right- 
lined  and  angular  forms  for  his  twenty-eight  numbers*  And  I  suppose  that  during  the  perform- 
ance of  this  operation,  which  might  take  many  years,  (for  in  nations  which  actually  made  some 
progress  in  this  process  it  never  vt  as  completed,)  he  found  out  the  means  of  recording  additional 
numbers  by  discovering  the  decimal  notation  or  arithmetic — the  contrivance  of  beginning  anew, 
when  he  got  to  ten,  till  he  reached  twmty;  then  beginning  anew  with  tens  as  he  had  done  with 
ones  or  units ;  thus  I  was  ten,  K  was  twenty,  A  was  thirty,  and  so  on.  Thus  he  contrived  a  sym- 
bol for  each  figure.  But  if  we  consider  this  process  carefully,  we  shall  find,  that  each  symbol  was 
not  only  the  representative  of  a  thing  or  idea,  namely,  in  the  case  of  the  second  number,  or 
chequers,  of  two  stones,  or  of  two  lines  on  the  bark  of  a  tree  or  in  the  sand,  but  it  was  in  each 
case  also  the  representative  of  a  sound,  and  of  that  sound  which  was  the  name  of  a  tree,  Beth,  the 
Birch ;  and  the  representative  of  a  number,  two;  and,  in  several  instances,  of  a  high  and  power- 
ful number ;  as  for  example,  5  for  200, 

This  is  all  strengthened  by  \hefacts,  that  the  first  Celtic  Irish  and  Hebrew  letters  were  called 
after  the  names  of  trees,  and  that  the  first  Greek  letters  were  in  lines,  ypa/A/ta,  to  use  their  word 
for  them,  and  actually  still  continued  to  be  called  TreraXa,  or  leaves,  after  the  knowledge  of  the 
reason  for  it  was  lost;  and  they  will  justify  the  inference  that  the  theory  which  I  have  suggested 
above  is  well  founded,  because  the  theory  shews  a  probable  reason  for  the  name  of  TrsraXa  having 
been  adopted.  If  the  letters  of  the  Greeks  were  not  originally  leaves  like  the  Hebrew1  and  the 
Irish  or  Celtic,  why  should  they  have  given  them  the  name  of  leaves  $  What  connexion  on  any 
other  scheme  is  there  between  wsraXa,  leaves,  and  letters  ? 

We  have  found  that  the  Chaldees  had  their  letters  in  lines  or  gramma  also ;  and,  as  the  Hebrew 
letters  bad  the  names  of  trees,  and  as  the  Greeks  had  their  letters  from  Syria,  nothing  is  more 
likely  than  that  they  should  have  originally  called  them  after  trees  as  the  Hebrews  did.  But  Pez- 
ron  has  shewn  that  the  Greek  came  from  the  Celtic,  that  is,  from  the  Hebrew.  But  if  the  Hebrew 
names  of  the  letters  had  not,  in  later  times,  in  the  Greek  language,  the  meaning  of  trees,  this 
makes  nothing  against  the  system,  because  we  may  readily  suppose  in  the  long  time  that  the 
Greeks  may  have  existed  before  the  arrival  of  the  Cadrnaean  colony,  they  may  have  lost  them. 
Vallancey  has  said,  that  the  Chaldaic  was  only  used  as  numerals,  not  as  letters  \  that  the  Chaldee 


1  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  I  assume  I  have  proved  that  the  Celtic  and  the  Hebrew  were  the  same,    See  Vol  I 
pp.  461,  518,  709. 


BOOK  III.    SECTION  4.  ]  53 

language  is  the  same  as  the  Estrangelo,  which  is  the  Pushto.     This  is  also  stated  by  several  other 
learned  men. 

The  word  for  letter  in  Latin  is  tttera,  which  has  been  said  to  be  derived  from  the  Arabic  <Juki 
letif,  which  signifies  an  occult  or  mysterious  meaning.  This  Arabic  letif  is  evidently  our  leaf,  and 
shews  that  it  is  highly  probable,  as  I  have  supposed,  that  the  Arabic  letters  had  the  same  names 
as  the  Hebrew,  In  fact  Hebrew  and  Arabic  are  the  same.  Here  in  the  old  Latin  or  Etruscan 
litera,  as  in  the  Greek,  the  Hebrew,  and  the  Celtic,  we  have  the  leaves. 

Dr.  Lingard,  in  his  history,  says,  "  I  would  attribute  to  these  ancient  priests  the  Rhyn  or  mys- 
ce  terious  language,  so  often  mentioned  by  the  bards  (of  Wales).  To  every  tree  and  shrub,  to  their 
"  leaves,  flowers,  and  branches,  they  seem  to  have  affixed  a  fanciful  and  symbolical  meaning ;  and 
tff  these  allegorical  substitutes  for  the  real  names  of  beings  and  their  properties  must  have  formed, 
<e  in  their  numerous  combinations,  a  species  of  jargon  perfectly  unintelligible  TO  ANY  BUT  THE 
"  ADEPTS.**1  But  why  did  not  Dr.  Lingard  try  to  find  the  meaning  of  this  jargon  >  2  The  Rh^n 
here  alluded  to,  is  the  Rhythm  or  the  Arithmos  of  the  Greeks;  it  was  the  Arithmetical  system  of 
letters  formed  by  straight  lines,  having  the  powers  of  numbers  and  the  names  of  leaves,  and  carried, 
I  doubt  not,  to  a  much  greater  length  than  the  first  twenty-eight  of  the  Arabians,  It  was  the  lan- 
guage of  trees,  of  leaves,  of  flowers.  It  was  in  truth,  probably,  the  first  original  Pushto,  or  lan- 
guage of  flowers,  corrupted,  which  I  shall  discuss  by  and  by. 

A  learned  writer,  in  the  Universal  History,3  maintains,  that  the  Syrian  or  Assyrian  characters, 
(or  Pushto,)  which  he  calls  the  Estrangelo  or  Mendsean,  in  the  time  of  Darius  Hystaspes,  were 
used  by  the  old  Persians,  Assyrians,  Syrians,  Arabians,  and  Mendaeans  or  Chaldaeans,  and  that 
from  this  letter  all  the  otheis  in  the  East  were  derived;  and  Mr.  Bayer  has  maintained,  that,  from 
the  Estrangelo,  the  Brahmin  characters  were  derived.  Now  we  know  that  the  Estrangelo,  called 
also  Pushto,  was  the  letter  of  the  Tamulese,  and  was  in  all  probability  older  than  the  Sanscrit. 
Mr.  Bayer  also  comes  to  the  conclusion,4  that  the  square  Chaldaic  character  was  the  primigenial 
letter  of  the  East.  As  he  comes  to  this  conclusion  without  knowing  any  thing  of  the  fact— that 
it  was  the  vernacular  letter  and  tongue  of  a  tribe,  namely,  the  Christians  or  Crestans  of  Malabar, 
his  opinion  seems  to  deserve  the  greater  respect.  I  apprehend  that  the  square  Chaklee  letter  was 
the  primeval  letter  of  the  East,  because  it  was,  as  Vallancey  says,  a  letter  of  numeral  symbols,  of 
the  first  written  but  unspoken  languages.  Bayer  maintains  that  the  Pehlevi,  which  he  calls  Par- 
thic,  is  derived  from  the  Assyrian  alphabet,  called  Estrangelo. s 

I  beg  my  reader  to  observe,  that  if  the  unspoken  language  of  numeral  symbols  were  written  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom,  the  consequence  would  be,  that  when  those  symbols  were  used  for  syllabic 
letters,  they  would  necessarily  come,  in  different  countries,  to  be  used  in  different  directions — 
sometimes  from  right  to  left,  and  sometimes  from  left  to  right ;  so  that  the  same  word  would  come 
to  be  pronounced  in  ways  totally  different:  for  instance,  sor  might  be  ros,  and  ros  might  be  sor. 

4.  After  I  had  finished  what  the  reader  has  seen  on  the  origin  of  language,  I  met  with  a  passage 
in  Boucher's  Glossary,  appended  to  Webster's  Dictionary,6  which  supports  every  thing  which  I 
have  said  respecting  the  ancient  Hebrew  language  in  these  islands,  in  a  remarkable  manner.  In- 
deed, whenever  any  learned  man  undertakes  to  shew  the  similarity  of  any  two  old  languages,  he 

i  Vol.  I.  p.  18 

*  Ogum  craobli,  "the  branch  writing,"  is  surely  decisive  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  opinion  of  those  who  advocate 
the  Tree  system.    Cue  of  the  thiee  Seronyddiou  (Saronides*1)  of  Britain  was  Gwyddion,  the  Diviner  by  trees,    Cam- 
brian Mag. 

»  Vol,I.p.81,ft.  4  Ib.p,  82. 

*  See  Act.  Erudit.  Jul  1733 ;  Hagar,  BabjI.  Bricks,  p.  14.  c  P.  -\xxv. 

VOL.  II.  X 


154  BOUCHER. 

is  always  right.    The  principle  applies  as  well  to  language  as  to  geometry— things  similar  to  the 
same  are  similar  to  one  another.    "  If  any  language  can  be  pointed  out  to  which  the  Welsh  is 
"  materially  indebted,  it  is  the  Hebrew; l  for,  there  are  several  radical  words  that  are  the  same  in 
"  both  languages ;  there  is  also  a  similarity  of  sound  in  certain  letters  of  both  alphabets  $  and 
"  they  are  likewise  alike  in  some  peculiarities  of  construction,  especially  in  the  change  incident  to 
"  several  letters  in  the  beginning  of  words.     The  analogy  between  the  Welsh  and  the  Hebrew 
"  proves,  that  since  (as  far  as  any  negative  can  be  proved)  the  former  was  not  the  original  lan- 
"  guage,  it  must  be  indebted,  in  a  very  considerable  degree,  for  its  origin,  to  the  latter ;  for  ao 
"  cording  to  Rowland,2  there  are  more  sounds  in  the  Welsh  that  agree  with  the  Hebrew,  than  there 
"  are  in  all  other  languages  put  together.    And  it  is  extremely  remarkable  and  peculiar,  that  the 
"  Welsh  has  no  resemblance  to,  nor  coherence  in,  sound  and  signification  (its  own  immediate 
"  cognate  dialects  excepted)  with  any  other  language  in  the  world,  now  known,  except  the 
"  Hebrew."     I  must  now  beg  my  reader  to  refer  to  my  CELTIC  DRI/IDS,  Chapter  II.  p.  63,  where 
he  will  find  full  and  complete  proof 'that  the  Welsh  is  really  Hebrew.    He  will  there  find  not  a  few 
words  sufficient  to  support  the  assertion,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  Dr.  Young,  but  actually  a 
whole  sentence  from  the  Psalms  of  David,  where  the  Welsh  and  the  Hebrew  words,  when  written 
in  the  same  letters,  are  identical.     I  must  now  beg  my  reader  to  turn  to  the  Plates  in  Volume  I,5 
Figure  26,  the  coin  on  which  has  a  Hebrew  inscription.     To  which  I  have  to  add,  that  some  time 
ago,  in  one  of  the  books  of  antiquities,  but  which  I  have  forgotten,  I  met  with  a  desciiption  of  a 
Hebrew  inscription  on  a  large  stone  in  some  part  of  Wales.     And  now  I  wish  to  ask  any  one  how 
a  coin  with  the  head  of  Jesus  Christ  and  a  legend,  in  a  language  obsolete  in  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ ', 
should  arrive  in  Wales  and  get  buried  in  an  old  Druidical  monument  ?     I  contend,  that  the  pro- 
bability is,  that  it  is  a  memorial  older  than  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  son  of  that  individual  of  the  three 
Marys,  to  whom,  in  his  infancy,  the  line  referred,  which  Mr.  Davies  suppressed,  as  stated  by  me 
in  Volume  I.  p.  593,  the  Son  of  the  Virgo  Paritura  of  Gaul.    Whether  this  medal  represents 
the  son  of  the  Virgo  Paritura,  found  in  the  Western  countries  long  before  the  Christian  aera, 
or  Jesus  Christ,  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  demon btration.    Many  things  of  this  kind,  I  believe,  have 
been  found  in  different  times  and  places,  but  always  immediately  discarded,  as  merely  superstitious 
works  of  devotees  of  the  middle  ages.    Thus  truth  is  disguised,  \vithout  any  ill  intention,  by  well 
meaning  persons.    In  like  manner  Sir  I.  Fioyer  throws  out  the  acrostic  from  the  Sibyls,  because 
he  says  it  is  a  Christian  forgery.    In  like  manner  Mr.  Davies,3   in  a  translation  of  a  Welsh  bard, 
leaves  out  the  last  two  lines,  because  he  says  the  bard  had  introduced  a  Christian  idea  represent- 
ing the  son  of  Mary  as  the  pledge  of  his  happiness.    This  Mary  was  probably  one  of  the  three 
Marys  of  Gaul,  and  her  son,  the  Lamb  of  the  Carnutes,  the  Saviour,4  or  one  of  the  three  Marys 
found  upon  an  altar  of  Hercules  at  Doncaster.    In  this  feeling  of  authors,  influencing  them  for 
thousands  of  years,  I  doubt  not  may  be  found  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  disappearance  of  the 
Judaean  mythos. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  and  as  a  strong  support  of  what  I  have  elsewhere  said  respecting  the 
Saxon  language,  I  cite  the  following  passage,  which  is  in  p.  xxxviii.  of  Boucher :  "  For,  by  the 


1  "  See  Llhuyd's  comparative  etymology  in  the  Archalogia  Britannica,  where  he  shews  that  the  Celtic,  itself  from 
"  the  East,  was  the  common  parent  of  all  the  languages  of  Europe,  See  Pezron,  Di\  Davies's  preface ;  Holloway's 
"  Originals,  and  lastly,  Rowland's  Comparative  Table  of  Languages^  in  which  he  hath  paralleled  three  hundred  Hebrew 
'*  words,  with  an  equal  number  taken  from  the  ancient  languages  of  Europe,  corresponding  therewith,  both  in  sound 
"and  signification,  more  than  one  half  of  which  three  hundied  words,  aie  shewn  to  have  a  sui  prising  affinity  and 
"  resemblance  with  the, Welsh." 

8  "  See  his  Mona  Antiqna,  3cc,,  p.  271."  3  Celt.  Myth.  p.  253.  4  See  supra,  p.  108. 


BOOK  III.    SECTION  4.  155 

"  operation  of  one  of  the  simplest  figures  in  rhetoric,  metathesis  or  transposition,  £.  e.  merely  a 
te  different  arrangement  of  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same  letters,  many  Celtic  words,  even  now, 
"  might  easily  be  made  Saxon :  thus  draen  readily  becomes  dorn  and  thorn,  and  daear  no  less 
"  naturally  erd  or  earth."  This  arises  merely  from  the  different  ways  in  which  the  line  has  been 
turned  when  the  writing  was  changed  to  the  horizontal  from  the  perpendicular.  The  Celtic  reading 
from  left  to  right,  instead  of  from  right  to  left,  of  course  places  these  words  in  contrary  ways, 
as  found  here.  But  if  I  have  shewn  (in  my  Celtic  Druids)^  as  most  assuredly  I  have,  that  the 
Celtic  is  Hebrew,  this  proves  the  Saxon  to  be  Hebrew.  For  the  Saxon  being  Celtic,  and  the  Celtic 
Hebrew,  the  Saxon  must  be  Hebrew.1  Things  like  to  the  same  must  be  like  to  one  another. 
Besides  I  beg  the  doctrine  of  Dr.  Young  on  probabilities  may  be  applied  to  this.  It  is  extremely 
curious  to  observe  how  learned  men  labour  to  exclude  themselves  from  the  benefit  of  the  real 
learning  of  their  predecessors.  This  arises  from  various  causes  5  one  of  which  is,  the  great  anti- 
pathy which  almost  all  philosophers  have  to  the  oldest  books  in  the  world — the  books  of  Genesis ; 
and  this  dislike  arises  from  the  manner  in  which  these  books  are  made  subservient  to  their  selfish 
purposes  by  both  Jewish  and  Christian  priests.  For  fear,  therefore,  of  aiding  them,  the  philoso- 
pher can  never  be  brought  to  examine  those  books  like  any  others  $  but  the  moment  they  arc 
named,  off  he  goes  j  he  will  neither  examine  them,  nor  listen  to  any  one  who  does.  Therefore  if 
any  person  attempts  an  impartial  examination,  he  is  instantly  poh-pohed  down  $  the  philosopher 
is  instantly  aided  both  by  Jews  and  Christians,  for  they  have  as  much  objection  to  a  fair  examina- 
tion as  the  philosopher.  This  extends  to  the  language  in  which  the  books  are  written,  to  the 
Hebrew,  because  the  priests  endeavour  to  bolster  up  their  interests  and  their  fooleries  by  main- 
taining that  the  Hebrew  language  is  the  oldest,  and  therefore  the  sacred  language.  No  man  has 
been  more  successful  in  his  antiquarian  researches  than  Vallancey;  but,  I  really  believe,  merely 
because  he  has  traced  the  old  Gods,  &c.,  of  the  Irish  to  the  Phoenician  or  Hebrew  language,  the 
philosophers  have  been  foolish  enough  to  join  the  priests  in  running  him  down.  The  latter  soon 
discovered  that  Vallancey  was  likely  to  discover  too  much  for  them  $  and  almost  all  the  English 
joined  in  decrying  the  literature  of  the  Irish,  because  they  envied  them  the  honour  of  it,  and  be- 
cause they  Jbated  the  nation  they  oppressed  and  plundered.  Of  all  this  Mr.  Adrian  Balbi,  in  his 
Ethnography,  furnishes  a  fair  example.  For,  in  treating  of  the  Mexican  language,  notwithstand- 
ing the  close  affinity  between  the  Hebrew  and  the  Mexican,  which,  in  defiance  of  monks  and 
priests,  has  been  so  clearly  proved,  he  never  notices  it.  He  acts  in  nearly  the  same  manner  with 
regard  to  the  Irish  alphabets,  and  says,  "De  grands  historiens  et  des  philologues  profonds  ont  deja 
ff  appr6ci6  convenablement  ces  reveries  historiques,  et  ont  de"montr6  que  ces  alphabets,  qu'on 
*f  pretendait  £tre  anterieurs  a  1' alphabet  Grec,  ont  e*t&  fabrique"s  par  de  pieux  moines  dans  le 
*e  moyen  age/'  If  M.  Balbi  had  looked  into  Vallancey*  s  works,  at  the  Irish  alphabets,  the  Bobeloth 
and  the  Bethluisnion,  of  which  I  have  given  copies  in  Vol.  I.  p.  9,  and  had  used  his  understanding, 
he  would  in  one  moment  have  seen,  that  they  both  possess  the  digamma  or  vau,  which  the  Greeks 
never  used  after  the  time  of  Aristotle,  and,  therefore,  that  they  could  not  have  been  copied  from 
their  alphabet  by  the  monks  of  the  middle  ages  \  and  secondly,  that  they  both  possess  correctly 
and  simply  the  Cadmsean  letters ;  and  therefore  it  is  totally  incredible,  that  the  monks  should 


1  The  Celtic  is  PROVED  to  be  Hebrew  in  the  Celtic  Druids,  (p.  63,)  and  in  the  Monthly  Magazine,  Vol.  II.  p.  609, 
and  Vol.  III.  p.  10.  The  Celtic  and  the  Hebrew  are  proved  to  be  the  same,  in  the  Universal  History,  Vol.  XVIII.  p. 
363,  Vol.  V.  p,  411.  See  also  Diss  on  Hist,  of  Ireland,  Dublin,  p.  48,  1763.  I  also  beg  my  reader  to  turn  to  Vol  I. 
p.  109,  and  supra,  Chap.  I.  p.  4,  and  to  consider  uell  what  the  well-known  excellent  Hebrew  and  Saxon  scholar,  Dr, 
Geddes,  has  said,  in  his  Critical  Remarks,  respecting  the  identity  of  the  Hebrew  and  Saxon. 

x*2 


156  DR,   WAIT   ON    SANSCRIT. 

have  copied  them  only,  leaving  out  the  additional  or  new  letters.  The  two  facts  taken  together 
prove,  that  the  old  Irish  or  Celtic  letters  were  not  taken  from  the  Greek,  but  were  the  same  as  the 
six  teen-letter  alphabets  of  the  Hebrew,  the  Tamul,  and  the  Pushto  or  Peshito.  Speaking  of  Gebe- 
lin, Balbi  says,  "  Parmi  les  fautes  grossieres  dont  il  fourmille,  et  que  ses  partisans  ont  re'pandueb 
"  dans  un  grand  nombre  d'ouvrages,  on  y  lit,  entr*  autres,  que  le  Persaii,  i'Armenien,  le  Malais 
et  1'figyptien  sout  des  dialects  de  l'H£breu."  But  very  certain  I  am,  that,  notwithstanding  the 
dogmatical  assertion  of  the  learned  Balbi,  this  must  not  be  classed  among  the  mistakes  of  the 
learned  Gebelin.  The  Count  Gebelin  is  right ;  because  all  the  languages  of  the  world  contained  in 
syllabic  writing,  unless  the  Sanscrit  be  excepted,  may  be  traced  to  one,  and  the  Synagogue  or 
Samaritan  Hebrew  is  nearer  to  that  one,  merely  from  the  accidental  circumstance  of  its  conceal- 
ment in  the  Syrian  temple.  Wherever  it  and  the  Chaldaean  priests  went,  there  the  remains  of  it 
will  be  found.  It  was  the  language  of  Ayoudia.  It  was  the  language  of  Pandea,  in  India,  of  Cey- 
lon, Scotland,  Ireland,  and  of  Syria.  Whenever  a  learned  man  attempts  to  shew  the  affinity  of 
any  two  of  these  languages,  he  always  succeeds ;  in  the  same  manner  he  always  succeeds  in  shew- 
ing their  affinity  to  the  Hebrew.  No  doubt  it  may  be  shewn  more  clearly  in  the  languages  of  some 
nations  than  in  those  of  others, — for  instance,  in  Arabic  and  Celtic,  than  in  Indian.  This  I  attri- 
bute in  a  great  measure  to  the  fine  Sanscrit  having  by  degrees  superseded  it.  Only  in  the  broken 
dialects  of  India  can  it  be  expected  to  be  found,  and  upon  all  these  the  Sanscrit  has  exercised  au 
overwhelming  influence.  The  observation  of  the  Count  Gebelin,  respecting  the  MALAYS*  speaking- 
Hebrew,  noticed  just  now,  forcibly  recalls  to  my  recollection  what  was  said  by  my  learned  friend 
Salome,  respecting  the  Hebrew- speaking  Malays,  found  by  him  in  the  dep6t  of  the  English  India 
house.1 

All  that  I  have  said  respecting  the  Hebrew  I  think  may  be  said  to  be  ummllingly  admitted  by 
the  learned  Balbi  in  the  following  words :  "Dans  ces  derni£res,  I'H&breu  surtout  offre,  pendant 
"  une  longue  suite  de  siecles,  une  £tonnante  fixite,  soit  dans  les  formes,  soit  dans  les  mots :  fixite 
"  qui  est  d'autant  plus  remarkable  que,  durant  ce  long  intervalle,  les  Juifs  subirent  les  plus  grands 
"  changements  politiques."  2  This  astonishing  fxite  of  language,  I  have  shewn,  had  its  reason  or 
c^nse  in  the  accidental  preservation  in  the  temple,  combined  with  the  dogma  which  forbade  all 
change.  Had  we  any  other  sacred  book  of  any  one  of  the  mysterious  temples,  we  should  probably 
have  found  it  the  same.  Though  the  manuscripts  might  be  torn  and  dispersed  in  the  time  of 
Jeiome,  yet  still  they  were  paits  of  the  old  book.  Various  opinions  have  been  held  respecting  the 
primitive  race  and  language,  which  have  been  often  confounded,  though  by  no  means  necessarily 
so ;  but  unquestionably  the  great  majority  of  learned  writers  have  come  to  the  opinion,  that  the 
Hebrew,  as  a  written  language,  is  the  oldest,  and  this  without  any  regard  to  religious  con- 
siderations. 

I  mentioned  in  the  note  of  p.  1,  that  Dr.  Wait  had  observed  "  there  were  an  IMMENSE  NUMBER 
"  of  Chaldee  roots  to  be  found  in  the  Sanscrit"  language.  I  surely  need  not  point  out  to  the 
reader  of  this  work  what  an  amazing  support  the  disinterested  evidence  of  this  learned  man  gives 
to  my  theory.  It  almost  amounts  to  a  proof  that  the  ancient  Tamul,  the  Estrangelo,  the  Pushto, 
must  have  been  the  Hebrew-Chaldee-Ethiopian-Syriac  on  which  the  Sanscrit  was  built.  That  is, 
it  actually  proves  the  truth  of  the  hypothesis  advocated  by  me  in  the  above-mentioned  note,  that 
the  Sanscrit  was,  in  a  great  measure,  founded  on  the  Hebrew — a  proof  which  I  was  not  able  to 
give  in  consequence  of  my  ignorance  of  the  Sanscrit,  but  which  Dr.  Wait  has  supplied.  In  the 
Sanscrit  language  there  is  scarcely  a  single  word  connected  with  mythology,  which  will  admit  of  a 


See  Vol.  I.  pp.  432,  442,  596,  665,  751 ,  *  P.  58. 


BOOK    III.      SECTION  5.  jgj' 

rational  etymological  explanation.  All  this  class  of  words  was  formed  long  before  the  Sanscrit 
language,  and  they  were  only  the  old  words  written  in  the  Sanscrit  letter :  from  this  it  naturally 
follows,  that  they  are  inexplicable  by  the  artificial  rules  of  Sanscrit  grammar— by  the  general  ap- 
plication of  which  rules  to  every  case,  Sanscrit  scholars  run  into  the  greatest  absurdities.  With 
the  Brahmins  it  has  become  a  point  of  faith  to  hold  up  their  fine  Sanscrit  as  absolutely  pwfect, 
and,  in  this,  they  are  followed  by  some  of  its  modern  professors.  This  is  with  the  Brahmins  ex- 
actly the  same  as  it  is  with  the  Jews  and  their  points;  but  wherever  faith  begins,  the  use  of  rea- 
son ends.  It  is  always  their  object  to  refer  any  word  to  a  verbal  root  3  but  to  accomplish  this, 
they  are  obliged  to  neglect  the  signification,  and  often,  also,  to  run  into  the  most  absurd  and  arbi- 
trary assumptions  with  regard  to  the  form  of  the  words.  A  few  examples  will  best  illustrate  thib. 
The  word  swan,  the  Greek  tfuo>v  a  dog,  they  derive  from  the  root  Si,  (pronounced  like  the  English 
word  See,)  to  sleep — third  person  present  sete,  he  sleeps — and  they  assign  as  a  reason  for  the  deri- 
vation, that  a  dog  sleeps,  or  is  a  lazy  animal.  I  think  it  will  be  allowed  that  nothing  can  be  more 
forced  than  this.  As  a  second  example,  Aswa  (Latin  equus,  a  horse)  they  derive  from  the  root  As, 
to  eat,  because  a  horse  eats. 

The  Rajah  Ranimohun  Roy  informs  me,  that  the  word  Age  in  Sanscrit  means  to  go,  and  quick- 
ness or  velocity;  and  thence,  as  fire  is  quick,  it  came  to  take  the  name  of  Agni  or  Yajni,  Every- 
thing in  nature,  the  Rajah  says,  was  supposed  to  have  an  angel  presiding  over  it,  according  to  the 
system  of  the  Jews,  which  was  also  the  system  of  the  Hindoos — the  angel  being  called  a  deus. 
Thus  the  Angel  or  Deus  of  Fire  or  of  Agni  came  to  be  the  God  or  Deus  Agni.  This  is  exactly 
the  Jewish  regimen.  Now  here,  I  think,  we  have  an  example  of  the  Sanscrit  scholars'  losing  a 
word  by  attention  to  their  artificial  grammatical  rules,  by  which  they  conceive  themselves  strictly 
bound  in  accounting  for  the  origin  of  any  word,  and  by  which  they  become  involved  in  inextricable 
difficulties.  It  is  almost  evident  to  me,  that  the  assumption  of  claims  to  absolute  originality  in  the 
Sanscrit  is  a  modern  assumption.  I  apprehend  the  word  age,  quick,  is  the  Latin  Ago,  which  means 
to  move,  and  the  Greek  ays  which  has  a  similar  meaning.  It  is  certainly  not  impossible  that  the 
word  ayvo$  hostia  pura,  or  agnus  laml,  being  a  burnt-offering,  may  have  taken  the  name  from  the 
fre,  and  thus  the  Agni  may  have  come  to  mean  Lamb*  Innumerable  are  the  absurdities  into  which 
the  Brahmins  are  obliged  to  run,  in  order  to  compel  the  language  to  bend  to  their  artificial  gram- 
matical rules,  and  by  these  processes  they  can  and  do  coin  words  which  are  found  in  their  modern 
Lexicons,  (and  their  Lexicons  are  all  comparatively  modern,)  but  in  no  other  books  j  but  to  ac- 
count for  this,  the  roots  are  said  to  be  obsolete, 

As  there  are  many  words  thus  formed  which  probably  never  had  in  reality  any  existence,  BO 
there  are  many  left  out  of  the  Lexicons  which  are  in  the  books,  but  which  are  left  out  perhaps, 
because  they  cannot  make  them  bend  to  their  rules. 

The  following  are  obsolete  Sanscrit  words,  occurring  in  the  learned  Dr.  Rosen's  Rig-Ved0e  Spe- 
cimen, and  not  to  be  found  in  any  Sanscrit  Dictionary: 

prafhdna  glorious,  celebrated. 

vohla  host,  army. 

«/w*am  quickly,  speedily. 

chit  and. 

dama  bouse,  dwelling. 


158  DE,  WAIT  ON   SANSCRIT* 

dam£  at  home  (domi). 

gnbh  to  seize,  to  take  hold  of. 

pritsu  in  war,  in  battle. 

bhargas  light,  lustre. 

charsham  man,  human  being. 

doohd  by  night,  during  the  time  of  night, 

vastar  by  day-time. 

vtspati  a  lord  of  agricultures,  i.  e.  a  prince,  a  king. 

mihlu  wealth,  riches. 

ild  food,  nourishment. 

sadha  with,  together  with. 

The  Irish  word  Ogham  and  the  Acham  of  the  Sanscrit  I  have  shewn  to  be  the  same.  When  we 
consider  this  we  shall  not  be  much  surprised  to  find  the  language  of  Scotland  called  Sanscrit,  or 
Gael-doct,  that  is,  learned  Gael — but  this  we  shall  find  by  and  by.  I  suspect  the  Acham  of  the 
Sanscrit  is  nothing  but  QDrr  hkm}  the  Jewish  word  for  wisdom.  Door  is  in  Sanscrit  Dwara  or 
Dura,1  in  Saxon  dora.  It  is  found  nearly  in  all  languages,  and  is  no  doubt  an  original  word,  lu 
Greek  it  is  Sugct.  In  Chaldee  it  is  jnn  tro?  The  Sanscrit  word  to  walk  is  valgz  this  is  evidently 
English,  that  is,  Saxon  or  Hebrew. 

It  has  been  observed  by  my  friend,  Professor  Haughton,  that  all  barbarous  languages  form  their 
words  of  great  length,  and  the  observation  is  very  correct,  as  we  are  in  the  habit  of  representing 
them  by  letters.  But  I  think  this  only  applies  to  unlettered  languages.  I  much  suspect  that  the 
fact  of  the  languages  having  come  to  be  described  by  syllables  and  letters,  has  had  the  effect  of 
making  all  of  them  assume  the  difference  of  character  which  we  see  between  them  and  the  Poly- 
nesian and  Mexican  languages.  The  arts  of  writing  and  reading  are  so  difficult  to  be  learned,  that 
efforts  would  naturally  be  made  at  first  to  render  them  as  simple  as  possible  \  and  it  is  on  this  ac- 
count that  we  find  all  the  first  alphabets  consist  of  right  lines.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  after  most 
of  the  words  of  a  language  had  been  put  into  writing  either  by  letters  or  symbols,  whether  confined 
to  a  high  class  or  not,  that  language  would  naturally  become  more  fixed  than  it  was  previously.  Ben. 
Wasigh,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  presently,  has  let  us  into  the  secret  of  the  monstrous  complication  in 
their  forms,  by  having  shewn  us  that  all  these  forms  were  adopted  for  the  sake  of  secrecy.  The  fact 
which  he  gives  us  is  supported  by  tradition,  by  analogy,  and  by  the  general  character  of  secrecy  which 
was  adopted  all  over  the  world.  But  though  this  made  the  forms  of  the  letters  complicated,  it  had  no 
tendency  to  make  the  spoken  languages  so.  The  same  cause  wh  ich  would  make  the  spoken  language 
of  a  barbarous  people  rich  or  complicated,  would  make  the  written  language  of  its  first  inventors  poor ; 
for  in  writing,  I  think,  as  little  labour  as  possible  would  be  expended  upon  it,  as  it  must  have  been 


Tod,  Vol.  I. 


*  See  Webster  on  word  Door. 


BOOK  III.      SECTION  5.  ]59 

an  extremely  difficult  thing  to  accomplish,  Every  kind  of  contrivance  would,  therefore,  be  adopted 
for  the  sake  of  brevity,  which  would  also  tend  to  secure  its  secresy. l  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  all 
the  principal  written  alphabets  of  the  world  are  the  same  in  principle — have  all  been  originally 
derived  from  one,  and,  it  is  probable,  that  that  one  was  the  numeral  alphabet  of  the  Arabians,  Iu 
obedience  to  the  eternal  law,  it  would,  of  course,  have  a  tendency  to  change — for  nothing  stands 
still.  It  would  be  pronounced  by  various  nations  in  various  ways,  and  we,  by  following  their  pro- 
nunciation, endeavour,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  to  augment  the  mischief  arising  from  the  law  of  change; 
we  labour  to  increase  the  change  instead  of  endeavouring  to  decrease  it  as  far  as  we  can.  For  in- 
stance, suppose  we  take  the  letter  y  o9  which,  by  its  power  of  notation,  seventy,  is  clearly  fixed  to 
the  omicron  of  the  Greeks,  by  their  o,  and  by  no  other  letter  ought  it  to  be  described,  and  certainly 
not,  as  some  persons  would  do,  by  the  tig.  This  is  clearly  what  we  ought  to  do  if  we  mean  to  de- 
note the  same  idea  as  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews  by  the  same  symbol.  The  sound  has  little  to  do 
with  it  5  the  idea  is  what  we  ought  chiefly  to  attend  to  in  these  investigations. 

We  constantly  find  that  travellers  meet  with  persons  of  all  classes  speaking  what  they  call  the 
Arabic  language.  Now,  if  I  be  right  in  my  idea  respecting  the  identity  of  the  Arabic  and  Hebrew 
languages,  how  is  it  likely,  if  not  written,  that  they  should  be  distinguished  in  India,  This  ac- 
counts for  the  Christians  speaking  Syrian  in  Malabar.  The  case  with  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic  lan- 
guages is  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the  six  dialects  of  the  British  Celtic — the  French,  Manx, 
Irish,  Welsh,  Cornish,  and  Scotch,  notoriously  all  the  same,  but  now  become  nearly  unintelligible 
to  one  another,  although  the  common  meaning  can  be  perceived  by  any  person  who  understands 
them  all.  But  no  person  in  the  more  civilized  parts  is  able  to  understand  a  person  of  any  of  the 
other  countries  without  great  difficulty.  This  is,  in  the  case  of  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  much 
aggravated  by  the  artificial  modern  letters,  in  which  they  are  written.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that 
the  Sanscrit  is  like  all  other  languages  in  this,  that  it  bad  its  infancy,  and  was  brought  to  perfec- 
tion by  degrees.  The  progressive  state  which  the  several  Vedas  shew,  puts  this  out  of  all  doubt. 
The  most  learned  Brahmins  now  can  scarcely  read  and  understand  the  first  Veda,  The  circum- 
stances attending  the  Yajna  sacrifice,  and  that  the  meaning  of  it  is  lost,  are  decisive  proofs,  either 
that  a  part  of  the  language  is  lost,  or  that  this  sacrifice,  which,  when  it  is  offered,  is  now  public, 
was  formerly  secret.2 

I  must  here  beg  my  reader  not  to  forget  that  the  old  Syriac  or  Estrangelo  or  Chaldee  is  called, 
though  not  the  letter  of  the  leaf  or  tree,  yet  very  near  it,  the  letter  of  the  Jtower— Pushto — and 
which  must  be  considered  really  the  same:  in  this  it  is  similar  to  the  Welsh  Celtic,  lately  noticed 
from  Dr.  Lingard.  But  I  shall  discuss  this  farther  by  and  by, 

The  first  Greek  letters  being  in  lines  or  ypoL^a,  and  called  leaves  or  TrsraXa,  and  their  notation 
being  yet  in  right  lines,  and  the  Etruscan  or  Italian  being  also  in  right  lines  5  and  the  Irish  and 


1  In  my  observations  on  Hieroglyphics  I  have  overlooked  an  important  notice  of  them  by  Ammianus  Marcellinus, 
lib  xvii,  4,  who  says,  that  a  certain  Hermapion  had  written  a  book  containing  translations  of  hieroglyphics  into  Greek. 
From  this  the  learned  Heeren  comes  to  the  conclusion,  that  he  must  have  understood  the  hieroglyphic  writing  and 
language.  Now  it  so  happens,  that  from  this  I  come  to  a  conclusion  quite  the  reverse,  namely,  that  like  M.  Champol- 
lion,  he  only  pretended  to  understand  them,  but  really  knew  nothing  about  them.  If  he  had  understood  them,  they 
would  all  have  been  instantly  translated.  Had  they  been  used  as  the  Edinburgh  Review  says,  for  the  purposes  of  com. 
mon  life,  Hermapion  would  have  had  no  occasion  to  make  a  book  of  translations.  He  was  evidently  a  pretender,  to 
whom  no  attention  at  the  time  was  paid,  and  he  would  not  he  worth  a  moment's  notice  if  he  did  not  add  to  the  proofs 
already  given  by  me,  that  they  were  lost  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Greeks,  and  that  therefore  the 
discovery  of  the  names  of  Ptolemies  and  Caesars  proves  M.  Champollion's  discoveries  to  be  all  delusions,  I  think  it  is 
evident  that  Hermapion  attempted  to  explain  or  translate  them  as  M.  Champollion  has  done. 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  260, 389,  640,  667,  707,  718.— For  Sanscrit  see  Drummond's  Orig,  Vol.  IV. 


J60 


CYCLE  OF   FOURTEEN. 


the  Hebrew  having  been  in  right  lineSj  and  having  both  the  names  of  trees,  are  not  theories  but 
facts,  and  will  justify  the  conclusion  that  my  theory  is  in  substance  correct.  All  this  is  strength- 
ened by  the  numerous  allegories  in  the  old  Arabic,  Syriac,  Welsh,  and  other  languages  relating  to 
the  tree  of  knowledge  and  of  letters— Arbor  in  inedio  Paradisi,  &c.,  and  we  shall  find  presently, 
that  the  first  system  of  letters  of  the  Chinese  consisted  of  right  lines.  I  think  it  must  have  been  this 
numerical  system  which  they  had.  Each  of  the  numbers  would  constitute,  correctly,  one  of  their 
symbolic  letters.  We  may  be  pretty  certain  it  was  the  same  as  that  which  the  people  of  Sumatra 
used,  and  we  know  from  Jambulns  that  it  consisted  of  28  figures. ! 

I  believe  that  no  person  who  has  studied  the  subject  ever  doubted  that  there  has  been  one  ori- 
ginal, universal  language.  Mr.  Bryant  sajs,  "There  <ue  in  e\ery  climate  some  shattered  frag- 
"  ments  of  original  history,  some  traces  of  a  primitive  and  universal  language ;  and  these  may  be 
"  observed  in  the  names  of  Deities,  terms  of  worship,  titles  of  honour,  which  prevail  among  na- 
cr  tions  widely  separated,  and  who  for  ages  had  no  connexion."2  On  this  subject  a  very  learned 
and  ingenious  treatise,  by  Mr.  Sharon  Turner,  may  be  consulted,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Trans* 
actions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Literature.  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  very  early  times  a  sacred  or 
secret  written  language  of  numeral  symbols  existed,  which  was  in  use  over  the  whole  world,  and 
that  that  language,  as  was  a  natural  consequence,  consisted  of  a  definite  number  of  words  and 
ideas,  each  word  and  idea  represented  by  a  number.  As  long  as  a  certain  pontifical  government 
lasted,  which  I  shall  shew  was  the  first  government,  and  was  the  inventor  of  this  symbolic  letter, 
this  tf  ould  remain.  By  degrees,  the  priests  of  this  order,  but  of  distant  nations,  would  add  words 
to  it,  till  the  number  became  cumbersome,  and  then  the  discovery  of  syllabic  writing  being  made, 
the  numeral  system  would  by  degrees  be  deserted.  This  would  be  the  first  language  both  written 
and  spoken,  used  in  all  nations.  By  degrees  in  each  nation  new  words  would  be  formed  in  addi- 
tion to  the  old,  and  often  exchanged  for  the  old  5  so  that  we  might  expect  what  we  find,  namely, 
some  of  the  old  first  words  in  every  language.  From  the  observation  of  Cluverius,  that  he  found 
a  thousand  woids  of  other  languages  in  the  Hebrew,  and  from  the  circumstance  that  it  is  in  a  less 
changed  state  than  any  other  written  language  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  an  effect  which  has 
arisen  from  the  accidental  concealment  of  it,  in  the  recesses  of  the  temple  of  Syria,  I  am  induced 
to  fix  upon  it  as  being  the  nearest  to  the  original  language. 

In  the  twenty-eight  angle-shaped  forms  or  arithmetic  figures,  there  was  evidently  an  unspoken 
symbolic  language,  or  language  of  symbols.  It  is  highly  probable  that  after  man  had  got  thus  far, 
he  would  very  soon  multiply  these  symbols  by  making  new  ones,  as  the  Chinese  have  done— a 
symbol  for  each  idea— or  by  making  drawings  of  the  objects  of  nature  as  the  Mexicans  have  done 
with  their  hieroglyphics.3 

6.  We  have  seen  how,  in  the  name  of  the  Sun  and  Moon,  we  obtained  the  first  word  of  literal 
syllables.  We  will  try  another  example  or  two.  The  Jews  and  Egyptians  had  a  cycle  of  fourteen 
days. 

Suppose  man  wanted  to  record  the  cycle  of  fourteen,  he  would  write  the  sign  which  stood  for  ten 
and  the  sign  which  stood  for/owr,  calling  one  lod,  Jod,  or  Yew,  and  the  other  jDirfr  or  Oak,  and 


'  Vide  Piel  Ob*,,  in  Vol.  I.  p.  5,  Sect.  22.  •  Vail  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  VI.  p  4. 

^  *  The  Mexicans  mubt  have  gone  from  the  old  world  after  the  decennary  system  of  notation  was  invented,  but  before 
it  proceeded  to  symbolic  writing.  If  symbolic  or  Chinese  writing  had  been  invented  and  known  to  them,  they  would 
not  have  fallen  back  to  hieroglyphics  Their  hieroglyphics  are  not  a  secret  system,  but  known  to  all;  in  this,  differing 
from  that  of  the  Egyptians  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  periods  of  the  planets  were  among  the  things  hrst  lecorded— the 
recording  signs  at  fin,t  being  used  as  figures  of  notation,  and  not  being  repiesentatives  of  sound,  and  therefore  the  signs 


BOOK  III.     SECTION  6.  jgf 

r-e  would  get  I A  or  Xodur,  lodi  or  AI  di.,  the  Hebrew  n  di,1  which  came  to  mean  holy  or  God. 
Thus  would  be  surmounted  the  immense  difficulty  of  finding  out  the  art  of  making  signs  for  letter 
or  syllables  instead  of  things.  And  now  every  sign  would  stand  for  a  number,  a  sound,  a  thing,  a 
letter,  and  a  sj  liable.  The  signs  for  things  would  be  soon  lost,  the  signs  for  letters  and  syllables 
remaining  j  and  I  fix  upon  this  word  AI  di  as  likely  to  be  the  first  written  word  in  the  first  syllabic 
language,  as  we  find  it  in  the  oldest  languages.2 

In  the  St.  Kilda  dialect,  and  also  in  that  of  Mexico,  Di  means  Great  and  Lord.  It  is  also  written 
Ti.  This  justifies  the  explanation  of  Ti-bct  by  Georgius.  It  is  the  word  of  numerals  Di~14. 
From  this,  as  Malcolme  says,  probably  came  the  name  Dey,  the  King  of  Algiers.3 

When  a  man  had  got  the  collection  of  three  stones  or  lines,  or  the  sign  standing  for  them,  to  ue 
called  Gort,  and  in  like  manner  the  parcel  of  four  to  be  called  Duir,  I  can  easily  conceive  ho\v  he 
would  come  to  describe  the  word  Dog  by  the  signs  for  the  3  and  the  4,  called  Duir  and  Gort.  I 
think  if  he  endeavoured  to  describe  the  animal  by  blgns  as  he  had  done  the  cycles,  he  could  do  it 
HO  other  way  than  by  using  the  signs  of  the  numbers,  whose  names  had  their  beginnings  with  the 
sounds  which  he  wanted  to  describe.  The  number  of  units  in  a  cycle  led  a  man  naturally  to  de- 
scribe it  by  the  symbols,  but  nothing  of  this  kind  could  lead  an  inquirer  to  fix  upon  any  figures  to 
describe  the  word  dog;  but  in  the  place  of  this  the  sounds  of  the  first  letters  would  instantly  pre- 
sent themselves  $  and  thus  he  would  describe  it  by  the  symbols  for  4  and  3,  because  these  num- 
bers had  names  which  began  with  D  and  G.  He  would  find  from  this  that,  by  taking  the  symbols 
of  each  number4  gfad  putting  them  together,  he  would  produce  a  certain  useful  method  of  record- 
ing any  thing  he  wished.  Thus  he  disco veied  the  art  of  giving  sounds  as  letters,  or  of  converting 
into  letters  the  symbols  of  the  numbers.  This,  I  think,  is  the  mode  by  which  the  most  useful  dis- 
covery in  the  world  may  have  been  made.  All  this  is  confiiined  by  ancient  medals. 

In  the  way  which  I  have  described,  a  symbolic  language  would  be  formed,  each  symbol  standing 
for  a  number,  and  also  for  an  idea.  Men  \tould  understand  one  another  perfectly,  though  the  lan- 
guage could  not  be  spoken.  Every  symbol  for  an  idea  would  be  a  monogram,  This  is  nothing 
but  Chinese  writing — the  powers  of  notation  of  the  respective  signs  having  been  lost  when  tie 
Arabic  system  of  notation  was  discovered  \  for  the  monograms  would  continue  useful  as  writing, 
but  be  useless  as  numbers.  The  memory  would  be  greatly  assisted,  at  first,  by  the  powers  of  no- 
tation, in  the  learning  of  such  a  language :  and  it  is  evident  that,  however  varied  the  formb  of  the 
symbols  might  become,  as  long  only  as  the  ideas  of  the  powers  of  notation  remained  unchanged, 
and  however  varied  and  unintelligible  to  each  other  the  languages  of  men  might  become,  yet  the 
system  of  writing  would  be  understood  by  all. 

Supposing  the  written  language  of  symbolic  -figures  to  have  been  in  use  for  several  generations, 
the  bpoken  language  must  have  been  gradually  changing  \  and  then,  if  we  suppose  the  syllabic  lan- 
guage to  ha\e  been  brought  into  use  by  priests  writing  into  it  the  words  before  preberved  by  them 

which  afterward  became  vowels  would  sometimes  be  used.  Thus  the  Sun  would  be  called  Sul  or  Suli,  as  the  case  niieht 
be— as  336  or  366  was  meant  to  be  represented 

1  I  must  apprize  my  reader  that  he  will  not  find  the  Hebrew  word  n  rh  in  Parkhur&t  construed  to  mean  God,  but  I 
feel  no  hesitation  in  giving  it  this  meaning,  since  he  allows  that  the  Celtic  De,  Di,  Dia,  the  Latin  Deus,  and  the  Greek 
Ata,  and  the  Goddess  A^  Ceres,  were  deiived  from  it.  See  Greek  and  Hebrew  Lex.  in  voce, 

*  Lord  Kingbborough  shews  that  God  is  called  Dios  by  the  South  Ameiicans,    Antiq.  of  Mexico,  Vol.  VI.  p.  63, 

3  From  the  T  \d  came  all  the  mounts  called  by  us  /ife,  by  the  Hebrews  jn»  ido :  U  JO,  d-4,  0«70«84. 

4  If  this  be  thought  complicated,  we  shall  presently  find  man  to  have  recourse  even  yet  to  a  practice  much  more 
complicated,  described  by  Sir  S.  Raffles. 

VOL.   II. 


162  CYCLE   OF  FOURTEEN. 

in  unspoken  symbols,  we  may  easily  conceive  how  differently  the  words  would  be  spelt  in  differ- 
ent countries.  The  only  surprise  to  me  is,  that  any  similar  words  should  be  found.  Sure  I  am, 
that  many  more  instances  of  identity  of  words  in  different  languages  have  been  found  than  could  be 
expected. 

We  have  not  yet  found  why  BD,  as  observed  in  Vol.  I.  p.  155,  came  in  almost  all  nations  to 
mean  Creator.  Buddha  is,  I  have  no  doubt,  the  first  God,  whose  written  name  we  possess, 
Among  other  names  we  find  him  called  Bad.  This  I  think  may  perhaps  have  been  his  first  name, 
and  it  may  be  AB  or  BA,  meaning  f other 9  joined  to  the  cyclic  word  di,  making  Holy  Father.  The 
Ba  is  the  numeral  emblem  of  Buddha,  because  the  two  letters  represent  the  number  three,  the 
Trimurti,  which  was  incarnate  in  father  Buddha,  or  in  the  holy  father.  But  here  in  Bad,  we  have 
the  word  for  Wisdom,  Logos,  Dh  iue  Love,  to  mean  evil.  This  was  for  the  same  reason  that 
hostis9  a  host,  and  a  peace-offering,  meant  enemy  \  and  as  the  city  of  On  or  the  Sun,  or  the  gene- 
rative principle,  was  called  the  City  of  Destruction,  all  these  mistakes  arose  from  confounding  the 
creating  and  destroying  powers.  But  the  word  BD  may  be  derived  from  another  source,  which  I 
will  now  explain.  We  have  formerly  found  PD,  as  well  as  BD,  to  mean  giver  of  forms.  The 
Jews  had  a  cycle  of  14,1  which  they  multiplied  by  6,  and  thus  made  a  cycle  of  84,  which  must 
have  been  in  this  case,  not  BD,  but  PD;  P~80,  0—4—843  Pad  or  PD,  the  name  of  Adonis,  and 
of  the  river  Don,  the  Po,  and  the  Ganges,  evidently  one  of  the  names  of  Buddha — Pod-en2  who 
was  supposed  to  live  84  years.  Though  formerly  puzzled  to  know  why  BD,  or  PD,  should  mean 
rreafor  or  former,  we  may  here,  perhaps,  find  the  reason.3 

Rapin4  states,  that  the  ancient  Britons  used  a  cycle  of  84  years.  This,  in  a  very  remarkable 
manner,  connects  the  Eastern  and  Western  world,  and  is  on  this  account  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance. I  shall  return  to  this  cycle  in  a  future  page. 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  division  of  time  or  first  cycle  would  be  into  a  period  of  28,  the  clays 
of  the  moon's  age,  called  cycle  or  circle  from  its  constant  renewal.  The  second  would  be  into 
fourteen  ID  10+4z=14  or  XIV,  and  the  28  might  be  two  fourteens — ID  ID — which  became  after- 
ward the  Syrian  AD  AD,  and  the  nr7>  ihd  treated  of  in  Vol.  I.  p.  392.  Man'b  first  conception  of 
God,  after  he  acquired  the  idea  of  his  existence,  would  be,  of  a  being  one  and  holy,  and  this  one  or 
monad  he  would  describe  by  the  figure  which  he  used  to  describe  the  tree  after  which  he  called  his 
first  number  or  unit  or  digit5  or  one.  Having,  I  suppose,  found  or  made  the  D  or  Di  stand  for 
the  name  of  the  first  cycle  of  fourteen,  or  in  fact  of  the  sun,  of  God,  it  almost  necessarily  followed, 
that  the  initial  of  the  name  of  the  monad,  when  man  got  to  the  use  of  letters,  should  be  joined  (to 
form  the  name  of  the  God)  to  the  general  term  for  the  idea  :  thus  A  was  joined  to  the  DI  or  D,  and  he 
got  Ad.  This  was  the  Ad  of  North  India,  Eastern  Syria,  and  also  of  Western  Syria — Ad  ad  cor- 
rupted to  HadacL  The  ID  was  Di,  the  Hebrew  n  di;  and  from  this  we  have  the  DI  and  D  pre- 
fixed or  post-fixed  to  words  as  Di-va,  Maha  Deva,  the  great  Goddess  Vau,  or  the  mother  Goddess 
Vau  or  Va.  But  ad  might  be  a=l,  d=4n5,  the  root  of  the  cycle  of  60.  The  Vau  we  have  before 
found  called  Venus  or  the  Mother:6  thus  we  have  dirva  or  Di-eva,  Deva.  This  sacred  cycle  of 

1  Ba&nage,  p.  436  *  See  Vol.  I.  p.  153. 

3  But  the  BD  may  also  come  ft  cm  B=*2,  D=*4=6,  which  is  the  Vau,  or,  as  we  say,  E\a,  the  mother  of  all  living. 
Eva  is  only  Vau,  and  the  emphatic  article  the — making  the  Fatt.  Thus  the  VdU  was  the  female  generative  principle. 
Il  was  the  root  fiom  which  sprung  all  the  various  cycles  depending  on  the  number  432,  It  cannot  be  objected  to  the 
meaning  given  to  the  Evn,  that  the  fiist  letter  is  the  Heth  and  not  the  He,  because  the  Heth  is  not  one  of  the  old  six- 
teen, but  a  new  letter,  and  we  have  formerly  seen  that  these  two  letters  were  commonly  substituted  foi  one  another. 

*  Vol.II.  Ed.  Eng.  B.  III.  p,  67. 

5  The  very  word  digit  for  the  numbers  under  10,  shews  the  origin  of  the  figures,  6  Vol.  I.  221 . 


BOOK    III.      SECTION  6.  ]g£ 

fourteen  5b  no  theory.  Plutarch  tells  us  it  was  the  Egyptian  sacred  cycle  of  Isis  and  Obiris— -derived. 
he  &ayb,  fioin  the  moon — 14  solar  revolutions  of  the  moon  5  therefore^  properly  a  Luni- solar  cycle. 
It  was,  I  suppose,  as  above  described  by  id  10+4,  and  thus  it  became  the  name  of  God  and  holy, 
being  the  first  natural  cycle.  The  reduction  into  its  still  lower  cycle  of  seven,  by  dividing  it,  doeb 
not  make  a  natural  cycle  like  the  fourteen  light  and  fourteen  dark  days  of  the  Moon.  Thus  came 
Da  or  Di  to  mean  holy  or  God. 

From  n  diy  holy^  came  do  to  give,  and  donum  and  divus,  in  fact  the  giver— in  Hebrew  jn  tn. 

In  the  word  A  joined  to  the  Dzz5,  I  think  we  have  the  first  syllable  of  the  word  Ad-am,  and  in  M, 
or  Om  the  second.  Or  the  second  might  be  ma^  great.  It  was  the  5,  the  odd  number  and  the 
male,  in  opposition  to  the  Kin  eua,  the  van,  the  6,  the  even  number,  the  female.  Our  word  od  it. 
ad=5,  our  word  even  is  the  vau—G,  Eve  with  the  Tamul  termination.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  and 
of  the  first  importance  in  this  inquiry,  that  the  names  of  the  trees  in  the  old  Irish  alphabet  should 
all  begin  with  the  letters  which  give  the  sounds  required  to  make  the  words  that  constitute  the 
names  of  the  letters.  For  instance^  the  Ivy,  called  Gorl,  to  stand  for  the  sound  of  G  j  the  Oak. 
called  Duir,  to  stand  for  the  sound  of  D.  This  was  because  the  number  4  was  called  Duir,  mean- 
Ing  Oak.  Thus  the  number  was  first  called  JDuir  after  the  Oak,  then  the  letter  was  called  Duir 
after  the  tree  and  the  number.  This  is  not  the  case  in  any  language  except  in  the  ancient  Celtic 
Irish,  and  just  enough  in  the  Hebrew,  which  was  Celtic,  to  shew  that  the  same  rule  obtained  in 
the  formation  of  its  alphabet.  A  necessary  consequence  followed  from  this,  that  the  letters,  whose 
designations  arose  in  the  manner  I  have  suggested,  should  have  the  sounds  of  the  first  letters  which 
we  now  find  in  those  names  of  trees,  and  no  other :  for  instance,  that  the  Duir  should  give  the 
sound  of  D,  and  not  of  O  or  of  any  other.  This  chiefly  contributed,  perhaps  entirely  caused,  the 
discovery  of  alphabetic  writing  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  very  striking  proof  of  the  truth  of  my 
theory.  But  if  what  I  have  said  in  the  Preliminary  Observations  (Volume  I.  pp,  13 — 15)  be  care- 
fully considered  jointly  with  what  I  have  said  here,  I  think  no  doubt  will  remain  that  the  Hebrew, 
and  consequently  also  the  ancient  Arabic,  (which  are,  in  fact,  the  same  language,)  had  originally 
the  same  names  of  trees  as  the  Irish.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  so  many  trees  to  have  had  the 
names  of  letters  and  this  quality  to  have  arisen  from  accident.1 

The  two  Greek  terms  for  letters,  viz.  ^rsraXa  from  TrgraXov  a  leaf,  and  ypoL^ara  from  ypapfty 
/i  line,  confirm  what  I  have  said,  that  letters  were  originally  leaves  and  right  lines.  A  book  is  called 
:n  Trish  barac  or  bare,  which  also  means  a  leaf,  which  Vallancey  says2  came  from  the  bark  of  a 
tree.3 


5  The  Morning  Herald  for  April  16th  or  17th,  1827,  states,  that  the  Bible  Society  in  Ireland  was  giving  Hebrew 
Bibles  to  the  native  Irish,  because  they  found  that  they  understood  them  in  the  Hebiew  quicker  than  in  the  English, 
What  I  have  said  icspecting  the  Hebiew  and  Irish  names  of  trees  seems  to  furnish  a  satisfactory  reason  for  this,  if  the 
Herald  be  concct.  And  my  theoiy  is  very  much  strengthened  by  what  I  have  shewn  from  the  pieface  to  Boucher^ 
Glossary,  and  from  other  authorities,  that  the  Welsh,  which  was  originally  the  same  as  the  Irish,  had  a  very  close  rela- 
fion  to  the  Hebrew,  but  to  no  other  language ,  in  fact,  it  was  really  Hebrew.  It  may  be  observed,  that  they  were  the 
humble  peasantry  of  Ireland  to  whom  the  Hebrew  was  intelligible,— people  lemoved  fiom  towns  and  improvement, 
and  consequently  change.  I  lately  learned  in  Scotland,  that  the  people  of  some  of  the  most  remote  parts  undeistand 
the  people  of  the  Western  coast  of  Ireland,  but  the  more  civilized  and  cultivated  parts  of  each  population  do  not  now 
understand  one  another.  I  was  also  told  that  some  Miners  came  out  of  Cornwall  to  Mr.  Pennant's  slate  quarries,  and 
they  understood,  though  with  some  difficulty,  the  Welsh  who  were  working  there. 

*  Coll.  Hib.VoLV.p.  134. 

"»  We  have  found  Bacchus  called  Liber,  and  Boc  or  Book,-  we  have  found  him  called  Kiakiak  in  Siamj  (Vol.  I.  pp. 
639,  643;)  and  we  have  found  him  called  by  most  of  the  Cycles,  as  Nss-650.  The  Hebrews  called  writing  pn  pi 
ik.dk.  We  have  found  him,  in  Ceylon  or  Siam,  called  Dak-po.  This  is  Dg-Padus  or  Po.  I  believe  the  Kiakiak  is 


164 


THOTH. 


7.  When  we  reflect  upon  the  general  tradition  that  Teut,  Thoth,  or  Hermes,  was  the  inventor 
of  letters,1  and  that  in  the  very  old  histories  they  aie  always  connected  with  the  idea  of  something 
magical,  the  following  observation  of  the  Abb£  Guerin  de  Rocher  will  be  thought  striking:  "II 
66  est  surprenant  qne  quantite  de  savants,  qui  ont  fait  des  recherches  sur  Thoth  on  Athoth,  n'aient 
"  pas  observ^  que  c'est  le  m&ne  mot  qui  en  H6breu  (mnN  atut  sigma,  nvrmt  anliut  litterse)  sig- 
"  nifie  signes  et  lettres,  parce  que  lea  lettres  sont  des  signes  cles  mots.  Athiuth,  qu'on  prononce 
"  othioth,  et  qui  vient  d'athut  on  othoth,  signes,  est  le  mot  constamment  employ^  dans  toutes  les 
"  grammaires  H6braiques,  pour  signifier  les  lettres.  Ce  mot  nous  indique  done  que  bien  des 
ts  choses  attributes  a  Thoth  on  Athoth,  chez  les  Egyptiens,  peuvent  avoir  rapport  aux  signes  des 
"  Hfebreux :  et  le  mot  de  signe,  chez  les  H6breux,  signifie  quelquefois  des  signes  naturels,  quel- 
"  quefois  des  signes  miraculeux,  et  enfin  des  signes  artificiels,  tels  que  les  lettres.  Je  montrerai 
"  en  effet  par-la  Torigine  d'un  Thoth  aussit6t  apr£s  le  deluge ;  d'un  autre  clans  Moise,  qui  a  bien 
"  droit  a  ce  nom,  et  par  les  signes  miraculeux  qu'il  opera,  et  par  les  signes  ou  lettres  sacr&es  qu'il 
"  &crivit,  C'est  que  je  d&velopperai  et  prouverai  dans  la  suite  des  rfcgnes."  2 

I  have  formeily  observed  that  I  thought  that  letters  were  secret  and  considered  magical  This 
opinion  is  confirmed  by  this  observation  of  Guerin  de  Rocher,  that  the  word  used  for  letters  or 
symbols  of  notation  is  also  used  for  the  idea  of  miracle,  and  is  used  in  Genesis  i.  14,  as  signs  to 
divide  the  times.  When  a  person  considers  the  astonishing  effect  or  power  of  letters  and  figures 
of  notation,  he  will  not  be  surprised  that  they  should  have  given  name  to  any  miraculous  effect. 
Nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  signs  TT,  which  described,  in  the  first  symbolic  letters,  the  soli-lunar 
cycle,  should  come  to  mean  signs  or  letters  generally,  letters  being  considered  the  conveyors  of 
the  knowledge  of  Wisdom  or  TT,  or  OM. 

We  have  found  (supra  pp.8, 163)  Bacchus  called  Liber,  a  book,  and  also  the  bark  of  the  tree  whereon 
letters  were  written.  Now  the  mm  atitf  spoken  of  above  by  the  Abb6,  is  evidently  Tat  or  the 
name  of  Buddha.  But  TT  is  here  a  letter,  and  Tiut,  or  the  plural,  letters  :  this  is  Thoth,  which 
is  clearly  nothing  but  the  Hebrew  plural  of  Tut.  Vallancey 3  says,  "Literarum  vero  characters 
"  in  amuialium,  ARBORUMQUR  figuris  invenit  THOTH."  4  Again  he  says,  "NE&  tta,  in  Chaldee, 
"  means  Vates  and  Haruspex;  this  is  Tuatha  in  Irish  3"  and  he  gives  an  Irish  verse  thus  trans- 
lated : 

Vatcs  (Tuatha)  Hiberoise  vaticinabantui 
Adventuium  (tempus)  pacis  novum.5 

Here,  as  usual,  we  have  the  prophecy  of  a  new  age.  I  beg  my  reader  to  refer  to  p.  23,  supra,  and 
to  consider  what  is  there  said  of  the  Thoth,  Tat,  and  Baqchus,  among  the  Mexicans. 

Our  word  Book  is  evidently  a  diminutive  of  the  word  Boc,  Bac,  Bacchus.  Bacchus  is  liber,  a 
letter,  a  book;  the  bark  of  the  tree  on  which  the  book  was  written  is  liber.  ninK  atut  is  nin  tut  and 
the  emphatic  article :  it  means  Buddha  and  a  letter.  By  the  tree  comes  salvation,  life  j  the  inner 
bark  or  the  liber  on  which  the  law  was  written,  is  the  life  of  the  tree,  as  anatomists  say.  Thus  the 
tree  is  the  book  of  life. 

Cicero6  says,  that  Hermes  or  the  fifth  Mercury,  whom  the  Egyptians  call  Thoth,  was  the  in- 
ventor of  letters.  This  is  nothing  but  the  renewed  incarnation  of  Hermes  or  the  fifth  Buddha  in 
Egypt 

pnpi  dkdk,  and  that  it  meant  a  cycle,  for  which  we  have  not  yet  found  a  God-unless  it  be  Dag-on.  p^SO,  i«4«;M§ 
Here  I  suppose  a  corruption  of  the  p  for  the  i  o  or  A.  As  this  is  contrary  to  my  system,  I  name  it  as  a  suspicion  but 
nothing  more, 

1  See  Vol.  I  p.  269,  a  Hist,  des  Terns  Fab.  Vol.  I.  p.  54 

*  ColL  Hib.  Vol.  VI.  p.  174.  *  El.  Sched.  -  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  VI.  p.  312.  6  Natura  Dcor.  lib.  iii. 


BOOK  III.    SECTION  7-  165 

The  Oak  and  Beech  gave  out  oracles  at  Doclona  or  Bodona.  They  were  called  arbores  loquaces 
by  Julius  Valerius,  Vol.  IIL,  and  Firdausi  mentions  speaking  trees,  which  revealed  the  decrees  of 
fate  to  Alexander.  These  were  books  ;  liber,  a  book,  was  a  tree — its  leaves  the  leaves  of  the  tree, 
A  book  is  a  prophet.  What  do  we  mean  when  we  say,  Consult  the  prophets,  but  the  books  of  the 
prophets,  to  see  what  is  foietold?1 

Can  any  thing  be  more  nonsensical  than  the  story  of  the  trees  giving  out  oracles  >  This  affords 
a  fine  example  of  the  absurdity  of  the  moderns  in  taking  the  mythological  stories  of  the  ancients 
to  the  letter,,  instead  of  giving  them  credit  for  what  they  assuredly  possessed — common  sense — 
and  instead  of  endeavouring  to  discover  the  hidden  meaning  of  their  senigmas !  The  Runes  of 
Scandinavia,  and  the  ancient  Greek  letters,  were  inscribed  on  triangular  pieces  or  staves  of  Beech 
wood,  and  the  word  Buch  signifies  both  a  book  and  a  beech  tree.2  Thus  we  see  why  the  Beeches 
of  Dodona  spoke  and  gave  out  oracles.  The  word  Rune,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon,  means,  whispering, 
secrecy,  magic.  The  word  Runeh  is  Phoenician,  or,  more  properly,  Arabic.  In  Hebrew  nn  rne 
means  a  song  or  to  sing.3  We  must  recollect  that  Olen  was  the  first  who  celebrated  the  praises 
of  the  God  at  Delphi,  with  song  or  poetry,4  I  have  read  somewhere,  but  where  I  have  forgotten^ 
that  on  the  pedestal  of  the  God  at  Delphi  was  a  frog.  In  Latin  Rana  means  a  frog.  Here  we 
sec  the  same  mystic  play  upon  the  word.  There  is  a  peculiar  kind  of  small  green  frog  which,  in 
the  spring,  keeps  a  up  continual  singing,  very  different  from  the  croaking  of  our  frogs ;  and  what 
5s  rcmaikable,  it  lives  at  that  time  not  in  the  ditches,  but  on  the  tops  of  the  Beech-trees.  I  have 
heard  it  often  in  the  Netherlands  on  the  banks  of  the  Lower  Rhine.  Ladies  in  Paris  keep  it  in  a 
bottle  for  a  weather  glass.  In  fine  weather  it  conies  out  to  the  top,  in  bad,  it  is  at  the  bottom. 

The  staves  of  wood  on  which  the  Greeks  wrote  are  called  by  Mr.  P.  Knight5  Tablets  5  but  he. 
gives  the  Greek  AsAro/.  I  suppose  they  had  this  name  from  the  similarity  of  the  top  of  the  stave 
to  the  Greek  A  delta.  However  the  tripods  might  become  changed  in  form  in  later  times,  when 
the  Greeks  lost  all  knowledge  of  the  meaning  or  origin  of  their  mythology,  I  have  little  doubt  that, 
originally,  they  were  nothing  but  these  three-sided  pieces  of  wood,  the  writing  on  which  enabled 
the  prophetess  to  give  out  her  oracles — and  thus  the  Beech-tree  spoke. 

From  the  word  *]^K  alp  joined  to  the  second  word  Beta,  the  Alphabet  evidently  has  its  name. 
Jt  means  chief,  principal,  leader.  It  means  a  guide,  and  in  this  it  is  easy  to  see,  that  it  means 
knowledge  or  wisdom.  It  also  means  a  principal  number;  this  I  believe  is  mystical,  and,  iu  fact, 
means,  as  the  first,  the  fountain  of  number  or  numeration.  It  means  both  a  Lamb  and  a  Beeve, 
The  Elephant  or  Ganesa  being  the  God  of  Wisdom,  that  beast  had  his  name  of  EAe4>&£  from  this 
word.  He  was  the  Jirst  and  wisest  of  Beasts :  from  all  this,  when  read  in  the  Greek  style  from 
left  to  right,  D^K  pla  came  to  mean  the  word  Pallas  or  Minerva.  In  the  Egyptian  language,  the 
island  of  Elephanta  was  called  Philoe  or  Elephant, 

The  first  word  of  the  Alphabet  is  often  one  ;  which  one  is  often  described  by  the  monogram  I. 
Here  the  idea  of  unity,  the  To  Qv,  and  self-existence  are  united.  The  number  ten  is  also  the 
same  monogram,  and  means  excellence  or  perfection,  and  has  the  same  reference  to  the  hundreds 
that  the  1  has  to  10,  and  constantly  describes  the  To  Ov.  In  Arabic  numerals,  one  and  ten  were 
the  same—- 1.  They  are  the  same  in  Roger  Bacon's  calendar.0  In  French  we  have  the  le  in  the 
pronoun  je,  I.  All  this  exactly  agrees  with  what  we  learn  from  history — that  the  first  Etruscan 


1  Sir  W.  Ouseley,    See  Trans.  Soc.  of  Lit.  Vol.  II.  p.  1 1. 

*  Foreign  Quarterly  Review,  No.  XVIII.  p.  439,  May  1832.  3  Fry's  Lexicon. 

*  See  Celtic  Druids,  Chap,  IV.  Sect.  III.  p,  121.  *  Prol,  to  Homer, 
6  Astle  on  Letters,  p.  189. 


THOTH, 


uid  Scandinavian  or  Runic  letters  or  numbers  were  right  lines  5  that  with  the  Irish  l  they  were 
called  after  trees;  that  with  the  Greeks  they  were  carved  on  staves  —  Axibus  ligneis  —  and  that 
they  were  formed  of  right  lines  and  called  Tpappara  or  IlsraXa  or  leaves,  or  petalon  or  leaf  (I 
believe  tree)  5  and  that  they  are  found  with  the  mythos  of  Virgil  and  the  leaves  of  the  Sibyl,  and 
m  the  Rythms  or  Runes  of  Wales.  Now  all  this  leads  to  the  important  result,  that  this  system 
was  not  at  first  intended  as  a  record  of  language  but  of  ideas.  We  see  in  the  Arabian  and  Hebrew 
•Jphabets  perfect  order  as  concerns  numbers,  but  perfect  disorder  as  concerns  letters  for  names  of 
letters  or  of  sounds;  and  we  shall  find  presently  all  the  planetary  bodies  and  astronomical  periods 
described  by  numbers,  as,  upon  my  system3  they  ought  to  be  found  ;  for  I  suppose  the  use  of 
*minbers,  for  sounds  and  the  formation  of  words,  was  not  discovered  till  long  after  arithmetic  and 
astronomy;  and  that  the  letters,  selected  at  first  without  any  regard  to  system  in  reading,  though 
afterward  altered  by  the  Greeks,  in  their  system,  to  accommodate  it  to  a  certain  mythological 
superstition,  very  evident  in  the  6,  60,  600,  ss9  saniach,  xi;  again,  in  the  9,  90,  900,  Teth,  of  which 
3  shall  treat  at  large  presently.  In  addition  to  this,  I  am  quite  convinced  that  an  attentive  con- 
sideration of  the  plates  of  letters  given  by  Mr.  Astle,  will  satisfy  any  person,  that  not  only  have 
the  ancient  systems  once  been  all  the  same,  but  the  forms  of  the  letters  have  been  nearly  so.  It 
will  also  shew  the  remains  of  the  practice  of  making  the  letters  from  top  to  bottom,  and  of  thcii 
being  read  sideways  ;  as,  for  instance,  the  S  W,  the  8,  <&  ?  and  many  others, 

There  are  several  parts  of  my  system  which  arc  facts  not  tlwories.  They  are  facts,  that  in  that 
system  of  letters  which  we  have,  and  that  probably  the  oldest,  viz.  the  Irish,  the  letters  are  called 
after  the  names  of  trees  ;  that  there  are  enow  of  the  old  Hebrew  yet  so  called,  as  to  raise  a  very 
high  probability  that  they  were  all  so  originally;  and  that  each  tree's  name  begins  with  a  letter 
'answering  in  sound  to  the  sound  of  the  letter.  It  is  a  fact,  that  the  moon's  name  in  numbers,  as 
above,  is  the  name  by  which  it  was  invokeji  in  the  orgies  of  Bacchus.  It  is  a  fact,  that  the  Greeks 
called  their  letters  gramma  and  petala  ;  that  the  letters  of  all  the  oldest  languages  were  in  right 
lines,  at  angles,  (though  some  of  the  nations  certainly  corrupted  their  alphabet  to  humour  the 
mythos,)  and  that,  at  first,  they  mostly  wrote  from  the  top  to  the  bottom, 

If  a  person  will  impartially  consider  the  great  number  of  duplicates  in  the  Arabic,  he  will  at  once 
aee  how  unnecessary  they  must  have  been  for  a  new-formed  language  :  4  symbols  for  d,  4  for  Z 
>x'  S,  and  3  for  T.  All  these  were  necessary  for  numbers  ;  but,  in  an  unformed  language,  must 
have  been  incumbrances  ;  and  thus,  when  numbers  grew  into  letters,  as  letters  they  were  dropped. 
With  the  Greeks  the  vowel  v  became  f,  and,  in  consequence,  they  were  obliged  to  use  for  their 
figures  two  5"  s,  and  place  the  vau  at  the  end.  We  have  seen  the  Chaldee  or  Hebrew  written  lan- 
guage traced  to  North  India,  the  land  of  the  Sacae,  and  we  have  here  the  same  alphabet  of  sixteen 
letters,  brought  by  a  tribe,  as  their  history  says,  from  the  same  place.  If  this  was  a  forgery,  how 
came  its  authors  not  to  copy  the  Latin,  the  Greek,  the  Hebrew,  of  twenty-two  letters,  or  the  Ara- 
bic of  twenty-eight?  It  is  out  of  all  credibility  that  the  monks  or  bards  of  the  middle  ages  should 
Lme  known  of  the  sixteen  letters.2 


1  See  the  Callan  Inscription,  Celtic  Druids,  Figure  13,  p  5. 

2  No  one  can  doubt,  I  think,  that  the  following  are  all  oae  language: 

Sanscrit,    EC,        Dvvati,    Traya,    Chatur,      Pancha,      Shat,       Sapta,  Ashta,    No\a,       Da&a. 

Hindoo,     Ek,        Duau,    Teen,     Char,         Panch,        Chlm,    Sat,  Ath,       No,          Dos. 

Latin,       Unus,    Duo,      Tres,     Quatuor,    Quinque,    Sex,       Septena,  Octo,     Novem,    Decem. 

EI$,         AM,         T>«^       Te^o-o^c,    tt&re,         *Ef,          EITTC&,  O/cra, 


168  OM.      HOMER, 

Male  generative  principle,  is  always  called  Our  Father,  The  numeral  meaning  of  the  word  in  a 
very  striking  manner  applies  to  the  Trimurti  or  Trinity.  The  coincidence  visible  here  I  attribute 
purely  to  accident  \  and  a  question  may  arise,  whether  the  coincidence  does  not  vitiate  the  theory 
of  the  origin  of  the  numeral  language  5  or  the  origin  of  the  firht  infantine  language  which  I  have 
laid  down.  Applying  to  this  the  doctrine  of  probability  laid  down  by  Dr.  Young  as  applicable  to 
language,  as  stated  in  Volume  I.  p.  449,  and  which  will  be  equally  applicable  to  this  case,  I  reply, 
IT  think  it  does  not  vitiate  it,  but  on  the  contrary,  as  I  will  now  shew,  confirms  it.  I  have  stated 
*he  fact  that,  in  almost  all  written  languages,  the  word  Ma  or  Am  is  found  to  mean  Mother — to 
mean  also  Goddess,  the  female  generative  power — the  Alma  Venus — the  TX&y  olme — the  mother  of 
the  Gods. 1  If  this  M,  Am,  or  Ma,  should  be  found  accidentally  to  dovetail  into  the  Mythos,  in  the 
way  the  word  Ab  accidentally  fits  into  it,  then,  upon  Dr.  Young's  principle,  two  such  accidents  will 
•certainly  vitiate  my  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  first  language.  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  the  nume- 
ral system  do  not  dovetail  into  it  in  any  way,  but  on  examination  is  found  to  have  been  forced 
from  its  original  simplicity  as  taught  by  me,  to  make  it  fit  to  the  first  language  \  then,  on  Dr. 
Young's  principle,  it  amounts  to  almost  a  mathematical  proof  of  the  truth  of  both  the  systems. 
Two  accidents  could  not  be  received,  and  the  chances  or  probabilities  would  have  been  as  n 
thousand  to  one  that  the  names  of  Ba  and  Ma  had  been  given  to  suit  the  mythos,  but  were  not 
uuong  the  first  written  words  of  man :  but  the  fact,  that  the  alphabets  are  forced  to  make  them 
ssuil  the  mythos,  places  the  chances  the  other  way.  If  we  examine  the  alphabet  we  find  that  the 
M  is  not  the  centre  letter  of  the  twenty-eight,  but  a  letter  is  thrown  out  in  the  Hebrew  to  make  it 
so,  and  the  letters  are  reduced  from  their  natural  or  original  number  28  to  27-  By  this  means  the 
M  becomes  the  central  letter,  and  this  was  done  to  make  the  Ma  or  Am  the  navel,  the  Delphus, 
the  Omphe,  the  central  letter, — the  Mia,  the  female  of  Plato's  To  Ov,  The  original  numeral  al- 
phabet of  the  Indian  Arabians  had  28  letters  or  forms.  The  Jews  changed  the  number  to  27,  to 
make  the  M  the  centre.  The  Greeks  changed  their  number  to  humour  a  superstition,  the  same  in 
principle,  and  to  make  the  two  letters  which  described  their  cycle,  the  cycle  of  650.,  the  centre 
letters.  If  we  examine  this  closely,  it  is  exactly  the  same  as  the  plan  of  the  Jews.  The  benig- 
nant daemon  of  the  cycle  was  the  Son  of  Man,  MNnC50j  and  thus  arose  the  generic  name  of  the 
*pecies— Man,  Mannus,  the  Male,  afterward  joined  to  the  female,  making  Am-mon  or  Om-an ;  and, 
a  hen  aspirated,  Borno,  hominis,  horainem.  In  accommodation  to  the  same  mythos,  the  Greek  van 
;r  digamma  or  number  six,  was  written  f  having  the  sound  of  the  number  ^zz60,  three  lines  Oi* 
*hrce  sr  s  or  %es,  and  the  number  #—600.  In  like  manner  the  M  final  and  600  of  the  Hebrews 
was  constituted  of  the  Samech,  the  60  and  600,  and  the  van  was,  as  the  Vulgate  calls  the  mother  ot 
7he  race,  Eva.  The  E  and  U,  the  5  and  the  6,  were  the  generators  of  all  the  cycles.  They  were 
both  Lustrums.  Thus  came  Eva  or  Eve,  the  mother  of  the  race  of  J/Ar,  the  root  of  Homo,  of 
Man,  the  root  of  Mun-di,  holy  cycle.2 

The  manuscripts  of  the  Poems  of  Homer  are  now  all  written  without  the  digamma;  but  it  is  u, 
fact  admitted  by  all  Grecian  scholars,  that  when  they  were  composed  (not  necessarily  written)  they 
must  have  had  it.  No  satisfactory  reason  has  been  given  to  account  for  this  extraordinary  anom- 
aly. I  suppose  when  these  poems  were  composed  and  sung,  the  use  of  letters  was  not  known ; 
b«Jt  that  when  they  were  committed  to  writing  by  Pisistratus,  the  letters  had  been  so  long  in- 
reined  as  to  have  given  time  for  the  vau  to  have  been  excluded  (probably  for  the  mystical  reason 
above-mentioned)  from  its  place  in  the  alphabet,  and  therefore  they  were  written  without  it.  In 
ihe  whole  storj  of  their  collection  and  committal  to  writing  by  Pisistratus,  the  knowledge  of  let- 


1  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  110,  1 11,  s  The  sacrifice  of  «  woman  is  called  aumoman,  woman,  euaman. 


BOOK  III.   SECTION  8.  169 

ters  Is  assumed,  as  no  new  invention;  therefore,  it  is  probable  that  they  had  been  in  use  a  suffi- 
cient length  of  time  to  have  given  an  opportunity  to  make  the  alteration  of  the  expulsion  of  the 
vau,  It  is  almost  certain  that  if  this  sacred  poem  had  been  written  before  the  van  was  rejected,  it 
would  not  have  been  improperly  written  by  leaving  that  letter  out.  It  is  impossible  to  account 
for  the  omission  of  the  vau  except  from  some  mystic  reason.  The  strong  probability  is,  that  if 
the  vau  had  been  in  use  when  the  poems  were  first  written,  they  would  have  been  written  with  it. 
and  would  never  have  been  written  without  it.  They  alone  would  have  kept  the  letter  from  being 
lost.  It  seerns  to  me  a  strange  thing  that  we  should  call  this  letter  digamma,  when  it  was  evi- 
dently nothing  but  the  Hebrew  vau.  I  know  scarcely  any  thing  more  absurd  than  calling  the 
Hebrew  vau,  which  is  now  only  used  in  the  powers  of  notation,  in  the  Greek  language,  by  the  name 
of  digamma.  It  is  evidently  our  letter  F,  come  from  where  it  would  \  but  it  would  not  have  looked 
learned  to  have  merely  called  it  F.  It  proves  that  Bentley  and  those  who  gave  it  that  name,  with 
all  their  boasted  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language,  actually  did  not  in  the  least  understand  the 
principle  of  it.  What  they  call  digamma  is  nothing  but  the  Hebrew  vau  growing  into  the  sound 
of  V,  hard  f.  The  sounds  UV  and  YU  are  both  the  same. 

When  I  reflect  upon  all  the  circumstances  attending  the  knowledge  of  letters,  I  feel  no  doubt 
that  they  were  not  only  considered  to  be  magical,  but  that  they  constituted  a  great  part  of  magic 
itself.  Let  us  consider,  only  for  a  moment,  what  miracles,  as  figures  of  notation  in  solving  pro- 
blems in  arithmetic,  they  would  enable  their  possessors  to  perform.  Let  us  consider  alone  the 
foretelling  of  eclipses,  and  let  us  add  to  this  the  knowledge  of  the  periods  of  some  of  the  comets, 
which  I  think  I  shall  shew  in  a  future  book  that  the  early  literati  did  possess.  In  the  passage 
quoted  in  Volume  I.  p.  675,  from  the  Revelation  xiii.  17?  18,  the  whole  of  my  theory  both  of  wis- 
dom and  of  the  system  of  using  numbers  for  symbols  and  letters  is,  in  one  sentence,  clearly 
expressed.  The  knowledge  of  the  number  is  called  wisdom,  and  the  letters  are  called  marks, 
that  is,  monograms  or  symbols,  names,  and  numbers.  Daniel  (ix.  2)  says,  he  knew  a  thing 
")DDD  onDDn  bsprim  mspr,  from  or  by  the  letters  in  the  book. 

From  13D  spr  a  letter,  or  symbol  of  notation,  comes  ^D  sp  or  Sup,  or  Soph,  ivisdom.  The  idea 
of  wisdom  and  of  letters  is  never  separated. 

Vallancey  says,1  that  storia  is  ,an  Egyptian  word,  meaning  what  we  should  call  news.  It  seems 
to  have  been  the  Hebrew  12Qttf  str,  which  I  think  meant  a  scribe.2  I  believe  the  scribes  were  a 
learned  order,  a  kind  of  priests,  and  that  they  were  the  only  people  who  understood  the  art  of 
writing. 

In  the  very  learned  and  ingenious  work  of  the  Marquis  De  Fostia  D'Urban,3  my  attention  uas 
drawn  to  a  passage  of  Josephus,4  wherein  he  states,  "That  they  pretend  that  they  have  received 
"  them  from  the  Pheniciaus  and  from  Cadmus:  yet  is  nobody  enabled  to  shew  that  they  have  any 
"  writing  preserved  from  that  time,  neither  in  their  temples  nor  in  any  of  their  public  monuments. 
"  This  appears,  because  the  time  when  those  lived  who  went  to  the  Trojan  War,  so  many  years 
*c  afterward,  is  in  great  doubt,  and  great  inquiry  is  made  whether  the  Greeks  used  their  letters  at 
"  that  time:  and  the  mobt  prevailing  opinion,  and  nearest  the  truth  is,  that  \hz\r  present  way  of 
"  ming  those  letters  was  unknown  at  that  time.  However,  there  is  not  any  writing  which  the 
"  Greeks  agree  to  be  genuine  among  them  older  than  Homer's  poems,"  &c.,  &c.  Now  I  conceive  that 


'  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  V.  p.  209. 

*  ISO  a  scribe  has  several  significations  in  scripture— a  secretary,  a  commissary  or  muster-master  of  an  army,  an 
able  or  skilful  man,  a  doctor  of  the  law,  a  man  of  learning1,  £c.    Calmet  in  voce. 

*  Homere  et  ses  Merits,  p«  li L  4  Whiston's  Joseph,  ag,  Ap.  Book  i,  Sect.  2. 
VOL.  n.                                                               z 


1/0  OM.      HOMER. 

this  opens  the  door  most  decidedly  to  my  theory.  The  expression,  the  most  prevailing  opinion 
was,  that  the  use  of  writing  was  not  such,  in  the  time  of  Homer,  as  that  which  obtained  at  that 
day,  instantly  produces  the  question.  Then,  what  was  the  kind  of  writing  alluded  to  ?  P.  Knight 
says,1  "The  age  of  Homer  is,  however,  so  much  anterior  to  all  monuments  of  art,  or  authentic 
"  records  of  history,  that  we  cannot  even  tell  whether  or  not  he  had  the  knowledge  of  any  letters, 
"  there  being  but  one  passage  in  his  works  where  writing  is  mentioned,  and  that  is  so  equivocal, 
"  that  it  may  mean  either  symbolical  or  alphabetical  writing."  The  following  is  the  passage  to 
which  Mr.  Knight  alludes.  Parkhurst,  under  the  word  nDD  spr  may  be  consulted  for  the  authors 
xvho  have  discussed  it. 


fc  fjuv  AvKvqvfy,  iropfiv  8*  oys  2HMATA  ATCTPA, 

sv  vivavi  Bprwery,  &vfAQ<p6opa  "jroXXa* 
Ae;fa*  8'  yvwyst  §5  iteyQep®,  o$p*  avohoiro, 

"  To  Lycia  the  devoted  youth  he  sent, 

"  With  Marks,  expiessive  of  his  due  intent, 

"  GRAV'D  on  a  tablet,  that  the  prince  should  die." 

It  appears  to  have  been  a  common  opinion  that  some  unknown  kind  of  writing  had  existed,  though 
it  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  words  of  the  text,  that  it  was  then  unknown.  If  we  suppose  that  the 
works  of  Homer  were  first  written  into  the  language  of  numeral  symbols,  a  written  but  not  a 
spoken  language,  many  difficulties  respecting  them  will  be  removed, 

When  we  recollect  the  Indians  admit,  that  the  meaning  of  their  celebrated  and  most  sacred  word 
OM  is  actually  lost  by  them,  I  think  we  are  allowed  great  latitude  in  our  investigations  ;  and  if  I 
be  right,  that  the  ancient  Hebrew  or  Chaldee,  the  old  sixteen-letter  Tamul,  Push  to,  and  Afghan 
language  was  the  original  dialect  of  India,  it  is  not  absurd  to  *seek  this  celebrated  word  here.  Then 
its  ancient  sacred  representative  would  be  simply  the  letter  CDziGOO,  so  mystically  found  in  Egypt, 
in  M-om-ptha,  and  in  Isaiah,  in  Om-nu-al,  Om,  our  God.  We  have  lately  seen  that  the  number  /owr- 
teen  described  the  first  name  of  God.  By  the  insertion  of  the  final  Caph,  the  letter  M  forms  the  four- 
teenth letter.  I  am  by  no  means  certain  that  a  mystical  connexion  has  not  existed  between  the  M 
and  the  cycle  and  the  Epo>£  divine  love  and  Ma,  mother,  and  Amo,  /  love,  and  Ed,  the  Saviour. 
I  believe  both  Venus  and  Cupid  were  called  Ego>£5  like  the  Canya  of  India,  and  the  Cama.  Surely 
my  mysticism  is  not  more  mystical  than  this  !  All  the  sixteen-letter  languages  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered but  as  dialects  of  each  other,  unless  the  artificial  Sanscrit  be  excepted  ;  and  this  assertion 
I  feel  confident  that  I  should  clearly  prove,  had  I  lexicons  from  English  into  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Sanscrit,  as  I  have  from  these  languages  into  English. 

The  monogram  for  the  Virgin  Mary—  the  Regina  Coeli,  is  the  M.  Some  of  the  early  fathers 
called  her  a  fourth  God,  an  adjunct  to  the  Trinity.  But  the  most  beautiful  emblem  is  the  Mother 
suckling  the  infant.  See  my  Fig,  No,  8,  Here,  in  this  beautiful  icon  of  Buddha,  I  have  no  doubt, 
the  male  and  female  principles  are  described. 

On  reflecting  deeply  on  what  I  have  written  in  my  Celtic  Druids,  (pp.  197,  198,  SOI,)  respecting  the 
word  IEUE,  and  in  several  places  in  this  work,  2  I  am  convinced  that  I  have  been  hastily  led  into  a 
mistake  by  the  modern  Jews.  They  hold  that  the  sacred  word  IEUE  is  the  word  which  ought  never 
to  be  spoken.  On  reflection  I  think  this  was  only  formerly  told  to  the  vulgar  Jews  to  satisfy  them, 
and  to  evade  their  inquiries  ;  but  that  the  word  of  the  Indians,  OM,  was  the  sacred  word.  It  is 
probably,  with  most  of  the  rest  of  the  Cabala,  lost, 


Ess  Gr.  Lang,  p,  19.  s  Vol.  I  pp.  67,  107,  158,  319,  320,.  323,  430;  and  ntpra,  pp,  5,  17,  137,  151. 


BOOK    III*   SECTION   9,  1/1 

The  Jews  could  not  be  taught  the  Decalogue,  nor  could  they  read  the  Bible  in  the  synagogues 
without  violating  the  very  law  they  were  learning,  or  which  Moses  was  repeating  to  them,  if  the 
secret  word  were  IEUE.  I  believe  that  the  real  secret  meaning  of  the  text  has  reference  to  the 
word  OM  5  and  that  it  means  Thou  shall  not  speak  the  name  of  thy  God  IEUE  irreverently,  meaning 
the  secret  name.  Or  the  text  may  be  correctly  translated,  thou  shall  not  speak  the  name  of  the  self- 
existent  God  (IEUE  meaning  self -exist  ent) ,  and  that  the  word  referred  to  was  the  Om  of  Isaiah, 
described  every  where  by  the  monogram  M,  as  M-Om-ptha.  When  Moses  asks  God  by  what 
name  he  is  to  describe  him  to  the  Jews,  he  is  told,  that  he  is  to  describe  him  by  this  supposed 
forbidden  name.  How  could  this  be  ?  Here  is  a  direct  contradiction  !  It  is  said,  the  Jews  write 
&he  word  H*  ie  or  fttiT  ieue,  but  pronounce  it,  in  English,  Adonai.  But  though  it  may  be  very  pious 
to  call  him  after  the  Gentile  God  Adonis,  it  is  directly  contrary  to  the  command  of  God,  who  tells 
them  what  they  are  to  call  him,  not  what  they  are  to  write  him.  My  explanation  removes  this 
difficulty. 

Surely  nothing  can  be  too  absurd  in  religion  !  God  tells  Moses  he  will  be  called  leue  by  the 
Jews ;  in  strict  obedience  Moses  goes  to  them  and  tells  them,  they  are  to  call  him  Adonis  !  The 
Jews  say  it  is  written  one  way  and  spoken  another.  When  God  is  said  to  speak  to  Moses,  there 
is  no  question  about  writing.  The  account  in  writing  of  the  scene  between  Moses  and  God  is 
altogether  a  different  matter. 

9.  But  this  raises  in  my  mind  some  questions  respecting  the  Jewish  Targums.  If  it  be  true,  ass 
Gen.  Vallancey  maintains,  that  the  Chaldee  letter  never  was  in  common  use  as  a  letter,  but  only 
as  figures  of  notation,  how  came  we  to  have  the  Targums,  as  they  are  called,  in  that  letter  ?  The 
story  that  they  were  written  for  the  use  of  the  Jews,  when  the  old  Hebrew  was  no  longer  under- 
stood by  them,  does  not  seem  very  probable,  because,  not  the  Chaldee,  but  the  Syriac,  was  their 
vernacular  dialect  in  the  time  of  Christ.  Gen.  Vallancey  says,  this  never  was  the  letter  of  the 
Assyrians  of  Babylon,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  I  have  noticed  in  another  place,  that  no 
inscription  was  ever  found  in  this  letter  at  that  place. l  But  this  letter  and  dialect  are  found  even 
to  this  day  in  use  in  the  country  of  the  Callidei  in  North  and  South  India,  with  all  the  mythos  of 
the  Je\vs,  joined  with  the  mythos  of  a  crucified  Saviour  or  Messiah,  (as  is  the  case  in  Mexico,) 
foretold  by  name  in  these  Targuius,  over  and  over,  in  the  clearest  terms.  It  is  said  that  they 
were  read  in  the  Jewish  synagogue  alternately  with  the  old  Hebrew,  first  a  verse  of  one,  then  a 
verse  of  the  other,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Jews  after  they  had  lost  the  old  Hebrew.  I  do 
not  know  what  is  meant  by  the  old  Hebrew  letter,  for  we  have  only  the  Samaritan,  the  Syriac, 
and  the  Chaldee  letters  ,•  and  the  Syriac  was  the  spoken  language  of  the  Jews.  I  begin  very  much 
to  suspect  that  the  Targums  have  been  brought  from  the  East,  and  that  they  are  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Callidei  of  the  East,  suitably  accommodated  or  corrupted—re  touch  e\ 

A  person  who  fancies  himself  very  learned  has  triumphed  greatly  over  my  ignorance  in  not 
knowing  that  the  Targums  were  written  about  the  time  of  Christ  \  for,  in  my  Celtic  Druids^  I  have 
placed  them  after  the  time  of  Origen.  Before  I  delivered  my  opinion  I  examined  these  books  with 
very  great  labour  and  very  little  profit  5  and  carefully  inquired  into  their  history.  They  were,  in 
my  opinion,  more  favourable  to  the  Christian  cause  against  the  Jews  than  any  books  which  I  had 
ever  read ; 2  but  that,  notwithstanding  they  must  have  been  informed  of  them  by  the  Jewish 
converts  if  they  had  existed,  yet  neither  Jerom  nor  any  one  of  the  ancient  fathers  before  him  ever 
quoted  them :  therefore  I  said,  and  I  say  again,  that  theie  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  did 
not  exist  before  the  time  of  these  authors.  I  do  not  wish  to  praise  my  own  learning,  but  I  feel 

1  Vol.  I.  p.  778.  *  Qnkelos  foretells  the  Messiah  twice. 


172 


TARGUMS. 


bound  to  say,  that  this  is  not  the  only  time  I  have  been  accused  of  ignorance  for  knowing  rather 
too  much. l 

A  great  mystery  hangs  over  the  Targums.  It  is  acknowledged  that  there  is  no  certainty  when 
or  where  or  by  whom  they  were  written.  It  is  very  extraordinary  that  neither  Origen,  Jerom, 
Epiphanius,  nor  any  other  of  the  early  Christian  fathers,  knew  any  thing  about  them,  particularly 
Jerom  and  Origen.  Prideaux  and  Michaelis2  will  bear  me  out  in  this,  that  they  are  written  in 
the  Syro-Chaldaic  dialect,  that  which  was  used  about  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  was  in  short 
the  last  language  spoken  by  the  Jews  whilst  a  nation,  and  it  is  the  language  now  used  in  South 
India,  Their  professed  object,  we  are  told,  was  to  enable  the  unlearned  Jews  to  have  the  consola- 
tion of  reading  and  understanding  the  divine  word.  If  these  Targums  had  been  written  for  this 
purpose,  as  it  seems  not  to  be  doubted  that  they  were,  I  think  there  can  be  no  question  but  that 
some  or  other  of  the  Jewish  proselytes  would  have  informed  the  Christians,  Origen,  Jerom,  &c,, 
of  them.  All  the  reasons  which  Dean  Prideaux  gives  for  their  concealment  by  the  Jews,  are  in 
favour  of  their  publication  or  exposure  by  the  converts  from  Judaism  to  Christianity,  even  supposing 
them  to  have  been  concealed.  If  a  single  conveit  had  been  made  of  any  respectability,  the  secret 
must  have  come  out,  that  the  Jews  had  some  books  which  they  were  charged  to  conceal  from  the 
Christians.  But  how  could  they  be  concealed,  if  they  were  in  common  use  by  the  unlearned 
Jews  > 

Origen  and  Jerom  both  lived  m  Palestine  for  some  time,  the  latter  a  very  long  time,  expressly  for 
the  sake  of  gaining  iufoiination  respecting  matters  of  this  kind,  and  he  wrote  commentaries3  iu 
which  the  Targums,  if  known  to  him,  must  have  been  of  the  very  first  importance  to  his  argument. 
Then  how  does  it  happen  that  neither  of  them  has  ever,  in  all  his  voluminous  works,  noticed  them 
in  the  slightest  degree  ?  Epiphanius  also  understood  Hebrew,  or  Syro-Chaldee,  yet  he  never  notices 
them.  Several  fathers  of  eminence  in  the  Christian  church  were  converted  Jews  5  then  how  is  it 
possible  to  believe  that  they  would  have  failed  lo  notice  the  Targums  after  their  conversion,  which 
would  both  have  aided  them  in  their  arguments  against  their  countrymen,  and  have  justified  them- 
selves for  their  conversion. 

Respecting  Jerom  and  his  search  for  the  Bible  in  Judsea.,  whither  he  went  to  collect  information, 
the  author  of  the  Revue  Encyclopedique  gives  the  following  account :  "A  la  solicitation  du  Pope 
"  Domase,  ce  pere  de  Teglise  parcourut  plusieurs  pais.  11  fut  oblige  d'apprendre  le  Chaldcen 
"  pour  recueillir  les  copies  les  plus  authentiques  que  les  Chaldeens  avoient  eu  des  Juifs.  II  dit 
"  qu'apres  bien  de  veillies,  de  fatigues  et  de  recherches  m&ne  les  plus  exactes,  ii  rassemble  beau- 
"  coup  de  lambeaux  disperses,"  £c.,  &c. 

The  present  Jews  look  upon  the  Targums  of  Onkelos  and  Jonathan  with  such  high  veneration, 
that  they  assert  that  they  were  delivered  to  Moses  by  God  himself  from  Mount  Sinai,  with  the  rest  of 
their  oral  law.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  these  Targums  are  much  more  favourable  to  the  Christians 
than  the  old  Hebrew  text  or  the  Septuagint  j  then,  I  think,  when  the  Evangelists  were  quoting  pas- 
sages as  piophecies  of  a  Messiah,  they  would  have  quoted  from  them,  or  at  least  have  noticed  them; 
and  when  Jesus  was  denouncing  the  oral  law  and  traditions,  he  would  have  said  something  either  for 
or  against  the  Targums  if  they  had  been  in  existence.  De  llosbi,  who  is  named  in  the  Dissertation 
on  the  Poetry  of  Isaiah  by  Louth,  professed  to  have  proved  that  the  present  LXX  is  not  the  same  as 
that  translated  for  Ptolemy.  Sabbathier  collected  all  the  passages  which  purported  to  be  taken  from 

1  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  man,  if  he  be  more  learned  than  his  contemporaries,  to  be  accused  of  ignorance.  It 
would  manifestly  serve  my  purpose  to  uphold  the  great  antiquity  of  the  Targums,  but  1  reason  for  truth,  not  for  ?vV- 
/wy.  They  shew  the  opinion  of  the  Jewish  church  in  the  time  I  allut  to  them,  uinch  is  enough  for  me. 

8  Ch  iv.  Sect,  vi  *  Piitl  Con.  Vol  IV.  Pt  li  B  viri.  p  (Wi. 


BOOK   III.    SECTION   9.  373 

an  Italian  or  Latin  version  of  the  Old  Testament,  made  before  the  time  of  Jerom,  or  which  he  sup- 
posed were  taken  from  it,  as  he  did  not  find  them  in  the  Hebrew,  the  Vulgate,  and  the  LXX;  and 
he  gave  them  to  the  world  under  the  pompous  title  of  an  Italic  version ;  but  I  believe  much  which 
he  collected  was  taken  from  the  scraps  of  the  sacred  books  of  different  Italian  or  other  temples, 
which  had  escaped  from  their  adyta.  There  is  a  copy  of  a  Bible  in  Anglo-Saxon,  in  the  British 
Museum,  made  by  Aelfric  in  the  tenth  century,  in  which  the  variations  prove  that  it  can  never 
have  been  made  either  fiom  the  Vulgate,  the  Italic,  the  LXX,  the  Hebrew,  or  the  Samaritan.  *  The 
account  of  Ararat  in  Phrygia,  pioves  that  the  Sibyls  did  not  take  their  account  from  our  Bible. 
The  omisbion  of  Jacob,  in  Enoch,  proves  that  he  did  not  copy  from  our  Bible,  and  the  account  of 
circumcision  again  proves  that  Aelfric  did  not  make  his  translation  from  any  of  our  books.  The 
same  argument  may  be  applied  to  the  accounts  in  China,  in  North  and  South  India,  and  in  Mexico. 
The  same  mythos  is  in  all ;  but  they  have  internal  evidence  that  they  are  not  taken  from  the 
Jewish  books.  All  this  tends  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  remark,  in  the  Revue  Encyclope'dique, 
that  the  books  of  the  Jews  were  Lamheaux  disperses  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  I  cannot 
conceive  how  any  one  can  look  at  the  difference  in  the  chronology,  as  given  by  Whiston,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  other  numerous  variations,  and  not  see  that  the  histories  are  substantially  different. 
How  different  must  be  the  account  in  the  Sibyls  from  that  of  the  Jews,  which  places  Ararat  in 
Phrygia  or  old  Room !  All  these  speculations  go  to  prove,  that  this  Genesis,  at  least,  was  the 
secret  book,  or  a  book  containing  the  substance  of  the  first  Pontifical  government  of  all  nations^ 
and  accommodated  in  some  degree  to  their  varied  circumstances.  Thus,  when  the  Jewish  Paulite 
sect  arose,  it  could  see  nothing  but  the  Jewish  system  or  account  of  the  mythos;  all  others,  in  its 
eyes,  being  copied  from  the  Jews :  and  as  this  sect,  through  favourable  circumstances,  got  pos- 
session of  the  power  of  the  worlda  it  succeeded  in  destroying  almost  every  thing  that  operated 
against  its  system,  or  in  corrupting,  intentionally  or  unintentionally,  all  that  it  suffered  to  remain. 

Mr.  Sharon  Turner,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Literature,  to  which  1  must  refer  my 
reader,  has,  at  great  length,  endeavoured  to  shew  that  all  languages  must  have  been  derived  from 
one  original.  JEvery  argument  which  he  uses  is  strongly  in  favour  of  my  theory  of  one  original 
written  but  unspoken  language  \  but  this  is  nothing  against  his  doctrine  of  one  original  spoken 
language  also, 

I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  use  of  letters  was  at  first  strictly  confined  to  mythology 3 


1  On  this  translation  I  have  leceivcd  the  following  information  : 

"  The  Anglo-Saxon  translation  alluded  to  was  made  by  the  celebrated  Aelfric,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  elected 
"  to  that  see  in  the  year  993;  but  this  \voik  was  completed  before  that  period,  while  he  was  yet  a  monk.  It  consists, 
"  1st,  of  the  Jive  books  attributed  to  Moses  ;  and,  2dly,  of  the  books  of  Josue  and  book  of  Judges.  These  seven  hooks 
"  Aelfiic  styles  the  '  Heptateuchus.'  They  are  preserved  in  a  very  ancient  MS.  in  the  Bodl.  Lib.,  and  thence  published 
"  by  Ed.  Thwaites,  dedicated  to  Hicks.  To  these  he  added  Aelfric's  translation  of  the  book  of  Job,  from  a  MS  in  the 
"  Cotton  Lib.;  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  translated  by  an  unknown  author  from  Latin  into  Anglo-Saxon;  aud,  lastly, 
"  a  Fragment  of  the  History  of  Judith,  in  the  same  language,  completes  the  volume. 

**  The  most  important  of  these  are  the  Pentateuch,  Aelfric  assures  us,  that  he  made  the  translation  from  Latin — 
"  from  what  Latin  translation  I  know  not.  It  does  not  agree  with  the  Vulgate,  nor  yet  with  the  ancient  Italic ,  if 
"  Sabbathier's  icstoration  can  be  relied  on.  It  differs  much  from  our  common  translation,  and  the  differences  aie  fre- 

*  quent  and  material.    Yet  where  it  does  agree,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  almost  in  every  instance  marked  by  superior 
'  brevity  and  clearness.    In  some  instances  it  clears  up  passages  quite  unintelligible  in  our  Version.    Many  passages 

*  are  omitted  in  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  some  most  important  laws— as  that  in  the  code  of  Sinai  for  the  ciroumcmon  of 
'  all  males.    Aelfric's  work  does  not,  however,  seem  to  me  to  be  an  abridgment,  and  I  am  inclined  to  suspect,  that 
'  this  law  of  circumcision  was  not  an  ordinance  of  Moses,  because,  if  it  was,  why  was  it  not  obeyed  during  the  time 

**  that  the  Israelites  wandered  in  the  Desert  ?  but  came  first  to  be  enforced  upon  their  settlement  in  Canaan,  as  we  are 
"  assured  of  in  the  the  book  of  Jobiie.  Be  tlrib  as  it  may,  tUfo  Anglo-Saxon  translation  may  be  of  good  service  in  some 
u  subsequent  and  better  version," 


1/4  TARGUMS. 

and  in  consequence  of  this  it  is,  that  we  find  every  really  ancient  mythologic  name,  when  examined 
to  the  bottom,  admit  of  explanation  by  numbers.  Let  the  reader  look  at  the  definitions  of  the 
first  book  of  Euclid,  at  the  lines,  and  remember  that  all  numbers,  and  all  letters,  were  described 
by  right  lines.  Let  him  think  upon  the  Arabian  Oriental  Algebraic  art,  the  date  of  which  no  one 
knows— the  art  of  Geometry,  the  Pythagorean  forty-seventh  proposition  of  Euclid,  and  the  letters, 
symbols  of  numbers,  and  lines,  and  doubt  if  he  can,  that  this  art  was  known  to  the  great  explica- 
tor  of  the  universe,  Pythagoras,  who  declared  that  all  knowledge  centred  in  numbers  and  lines,  and 
who  was  burnt  by  his  more  wise  and  orthodox  countrymen,  for  the  wickedness  of  teaching  this 
and  similar  doctrines. 

The  word  Yoni  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  same  as  lune.  It  is  the  same  as  the  nil*  iune  of  the 
Israelites,  which  means  dove.  It  is  the  name  of  the  islands  of  Java  and  Sumatra,  which  thus  carry 
the  same  name  as  the  island  of  lona  and  of  Columba,  of  the  Hebrides  of  Scotland,  both,  no 
doubt,  sawed  isles.  It  is  the  same  word  as  the  Juno  of  the  Latins.1  It  is  a  word  composed  of 
the  Hebrew  word  .T  ie,  or  the  Syrian  word  la,  and  the  word  ni9  which  I  do  not  understand ;  but 
'which,  perhaps,  may  be  only  a  nominal  termination,  like  en  in  Cris-en,  or  os  in  Xp^£-0£j  or  the 
Latin  us,  in  Christ-us.  It  is  the  IE  of  the  Apollo  of  Delphi,  It  is  the  Jan-nus  and  Ja-na  of  the 
Romans.  It  is  the  Diana  or  Di-ja-na  or  dwa-ja-na.  It  became,  when  the  Greeks  perfected  their 
language,  by  the  invention  of  a  neuter  gender,  the  To  O*>,  or  the  I  Oy.  It  is  the  Hebrew  ft>  ie  or 
miT  ieue  I  am  that  I  am— or,  grammatically, — I  shall  be  what  I  have  been;  or  a  definition  of  the 
creative  power.  It  is  the  root  from  which  great  numbers  of  the  Sanscrit  and  Indian  Gods  have 
been  formed.  Yavana,  is  the  ie  and  vaha,  to  carry,  one  of  the  meanings  of  the  word  ana,  but  which 
must  have  another  meaning ;  because  the  word  Ya-vana  means  a  sect  professing  the  superior  in- 
fluence of  the  female  over  the  male  nature;2  and  I  believe  it  means  to  bear  as  well  as  to  carry,  and 
has  precisely  the  same  meaning  as  our  word  to  bear,  used  to  carry  a  burden — to  produce  a  child. 
Hence  we  see  why  the  Ya-vanas  became  loniaus.  It  is  the  root  of  Nar-ay-ana.  Nar  in  Sanscrit 
is  water,  the  Hebrew  *ina  ner,  river  or  water,  and  the  word  means  IE  carried  in  the,  or  on  the 
water. 3  it  is  Kanya;  that  is,  Can  or  Cunia,  &c.,  &c.  It  has  the  same  meaning  as  the  Amba  of 
India,4  and  the  Omphe  of  Greece,  and  the  Om  and  Ammon  of  Egypt ;  these  latter  being  of  both 
genders,  which,  I  am  persuaded,  answers  to  one  sense  of  the  Bya  of  India,6  meaning  Bis-Ja, 
Double-Ja — male  and  female.  Finally  it  is  the  Argha. 

The  more  I  study  my  subject,  the  more  facts  I  discover  to  prove  that  the  Pythagorean  doctrine 
was  true,  that  all  learning  and  science  rebolved  itself  at  last  into  numbers.  We  find  the  Hebrew 
God  called  El  and  I,  We  read  much  of  Ion,  of  lon-ia,  of  Jan-a,  Jun-o,  lav-anas,  and  of  Bet-on, 
JWV3.  bit-un,  and  Beth-aven,  {IK-fiO-  bit  auu.  Now,  how  comes  ON  to  mean,  as  I  have  shewn,  the 
generative  principle  ?  It  is  the  neuter  of  the  Greek  pronoun  b$,G  meaning  existence,  which  always 
carried  along  with  it  the  idea  of  destruction,  and  necessarily  reproduction,  that  is,  the  generative 
principle ;  and  I-ov  is  the  ON  of  I,  and  I,  the  jod,  is  ten,  the  X-,  the  perfect  number,  the  numeral 
meaning  of  the  ten  avatars,  eternally  renewed,  of  the  creative  God,  the  AOFO2J.  It  is  also  the 
To  Oi>j  the  T-1«y  ON,  that  is,  the  cross  of  Ezekiel,  with  which  the  believers  were  marked  in  the 
forehead,  after  the  manner  of  the  Buddhists  of  India,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  sects  of  India,  who  arc 
marked  with  some  sign  or  other.  In  the  same  manner  the  Christian  priest,  ir>  baptism,  marks 
the  child  on  the  forehead  with  the  cross.  If  Plato  had  not  made  the  ov  the  fountain  of  his  rnythos, 
I  should  have  thought  this  too  refined  or  mystical  to  be  credited. 

As  the  city  of  ON  or  Heliopolis,  or  of  the  generative  power,  was  called  the  city  of  destruction,  so 

1  Asiat.  Res.  Vol.  III.  p.  364.      «  Ib.  p.  358.      3  Ib.      4  Ib.  p.  360.       5  Ib.  p.  358.       G  Participle  w,  qu.  ?  Ed. 


BOOK   III.   SECTION    10.  175 

the  KaTiog  or  beautiful  of  Greece  was  the  Call  or  Goddess  of  destruction  with  the  Indians.  From  this 
principle  she  became  the  Goddess  of  Time,  because  Time  is  the  greatest  of  destroyers  ;  and  from 
her,  the  last  age,  when  all  was  supposed  to  be  destroyed  or  finished,  was  called  the  Cali-Yug  or 
Cali-age.  The  same  feeling  in  Europe  which  makes  devotees  deal  in  nothing  but  damnation, 
makes  the  Indian  Goddess  Call  a  favourite,  her  devotees  having  first  converted  the  beauty  into 
destruction. 

The  meaning  of  the  iT  ie  of  the  Hebrews,  as  I  have  repeatedly  remarked,  is  the  self -existent.  It 
seems  singular  that,  unless  he  were  the  Supreme,  he  should  have  this  name-  But  the  same  thing 
happens  in  India,  whence  no  doubt  it  came.  The  supreme  Being  in  the  second  Veda  says,  "From 
"  me  Brahma  was  born ;  he  is  above  all;  he  is  Pitama,  or  the  father  of  all  men;  he  as  Aja^  or 
"  self-existing,"  From  him,  Col.  Wilford  says,  they  represent  Adima  (which  word  means  both 
first  male  and  female})  to  have  descended.  She  is  the  same  as  Jva  or  /,  the  female  energy  of  na- 
ture, or  descended  from  /—the  same  as  Isa  or  Isi,  male  and  female.  *  All  these  are  nothing  but 
Hebrew  names  written  in  Sanscrit. 

If  a  person  will  think  deeply  he  will  have  no  difficulty  in  forming  an  idea  how,  when  the  art  of 
writing  was  secret,  a  written  word  would  be  magical.  A  few  lines  scrawled  in  the  presence  of  a 
person  on  a  bit  of  leaf  or  bark  might  be  given  to  him,  and  he  might  be  told,  whoever  is  a  magician 
or  initiated  on  seeing  that  scrawl,  will  know  your  name,  or  any  other  desired  fact.  A  person  must 
think  deeply  on  this,  or  he  will  not  see  the  force  of  the  argument  which  arises  from  the  dupe  having 
no  idea  of  the  nature  or  power  of  conveying  knowledge  by  symbols.  As  the  Chaldaean  priests 
were  the  only  people  who  understood  the  secret  of  writing,  it  followed,  that  they  were  all  magi  or 
magicians  \  and  when  the  secret  did  begin  to  creep  out,  all  letters  were  magical  or  supernatural. 
This  and  some  other  secrets— the  telescope,  astronomy,  the  loadstone — made  the  Chaldasanb 
masters  of  the  world,  and  they  became  Moguls.  Mogul  is  but  Al-Mag,  The  Mage.  On  this 
account  all  the  princes  of  India  desire  to  be  invested  with  the  pallium  by  the  old  Mogul  of  Delhi, 
successor  of  Gengis  Khan,  of  Tartary,  the  last  incarnation  of  divine  Wisdom.  The  mythos  at  last 
always  reverts  to  its  birth-place,  Indian  Tartary — the  Mount  Solima,  the  snow-capped  Meru, 
where  the  Gods  sit  on  the  sides  of  the  North.  How  the  Mogul  comes  to  be  Lord  Paramount  oi 
the  world,  I  shall  explain  in  a  future  book. 

10.  The  observation  of  Dr.  Young  respecting  probabilities  is  very  important  j  for,  as  the  written 
languages  of  all  the  nations  of  the  old  world  contain  a  considerable  number  of  words  in  common, 
the  probability  that  they  are  all  derived  from  one  parent  stock  rises  almost  to  a  certainty.  This 
leaves  the  question  of  the  derivation  of  the  genus  man  from  one  or  more  original  pairs,  nearly  un- 
touched. For  the  diffusion  of  the  Pandsean,  Catholic  or  Universal  Buddhism,  which  seems  evi- 
dently to  have  gone  with  the  secret  system  of  letters,  will  readily  account  for  a  certain  number, 
and  a  considerable  number,  of  the  same  words  in  all  the  different  languages.  It  will  also  readily 
account  for  the  variety  which  may  be  observed  in  their  mixture.  Wherever  either  the  arithmetical 
or  the  first  syllabic  system  extended,  there  a  mixture  of  words  might  be  expected ;  and  it  seenib 
probable,  from  hundreds  of  circumstances,  that  the  language  of  the  Chaldaean  Brahmin,  which  was 
that  of  which  the  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Ethiopian,  Tamul,  Pushto,  and  Syriac,  were  close  dialects,  was 
the  language  into  which  the  arithmetical  language  was  first  translated,  by  means  of  the  then  new- 
ly-invented syllables.  If  we  suppose  the  languages  of  the  earth  to  have  been  at  that  time  widely 
spread,  and  that  dialects  had  begun  to  be  formed,  when  the  art  of  rendering  the  arithmetic  into 
letters  and  syllables  was  discovered  \  the  secret  society  of  initiated  who  discovered  it,  in  every 

»  Here  is  most  clearly  the  Hebrew  mn  eie,  or  rr  ie.  Asiat.  Res.  Vol.  V.  p.  247. 


J/6  DR.  YOUNG. — SOL, 

country,  would  begin  to  translate  it  each  into  his  own  dialect.  This  theory,  I  think,  will  readily 
account  for  Hebrew  and  Indian  words  in  Britain,  and  words  of  Britain  in  India,  The  possibility 
of  a  written,  unspoken  language  i&  proved  by  its  actual  present  existence  in  Java,  which  cannot  be 
denied.  The  possibility  of  its  existence  by  means  of  numeral  ciphers  must  be  admitted  3  and  I  am 
quite  certain  that  the  actual  existence  of  the  cubtoin  of  using  arithmetical  signs  to  describe  certain 
mythic  words,  and  the  possibility  which  I  have  shewn  of  many  others  having  been  formed  from 
arithmetic,  raises  a  very  strong  probability,  that  the  arithmetical  system  has  been  general.  Of  a 
theory  like  this  proofs  can  never  be  expected;  probability  alone  must  be  looked  for.  To  this  theory 
/see  no  objection ;  but  if  there  be  certain  difficulties  which,  when  pointed  out,  I  cannot  explain, 
in  such  a  case  as  this,  they  cannot  be  considered  to  invalidate  it,  as  long  as  a  possibility  remains; 
of  an  unknown  explanation  of  them  being  discovered.  If  the  theory  be  true,  it  is  not  within  the 
scope  of  probability,  that  all  difficulties  should  be  removed,  even  if  all  the  learning  and  talent  in 
the  world  were  employed  upon  it;  much  less  when  they  are  attempted  to  be  removed  by  a  solitary 
individual,  who  claims  neither  much  learning  nor  much  talent ;  and  who,  from  the  peculiarly  re- 
condite nature  of  his  subject,  can  obtain  no  assibtance. 

I  consider  that  it  admits  of  no  doubt,  that  all  the  written  syllabic  languages  with  which  we  arc- 
acquainted  are  the  sarae3  rcith  mezely  dialectic  variations  \  and  that  all  the  alphabets  or  systems* 
of  letters  are  one,  only  with  the  letters  in  different  forms,  as  we  have  the  English  language  and 
letter  though  one,  yet  WRITTEN  IN  DIFFERENT /oras.  The  Arabic  table  of  letters  and  numbers, 
compared  with  the  Greek,  proves  this.  We  have  here  all  the  numbers  in  order,  but  the  letters  iu 
disorder.  We  ought  in  considering  these  subjects  never  to  forget,  that  all  the  various  dialects  of 
the  world  are  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel,  as  we  go  back  converging  towards  one  another,  till  they 
meet  in  the  centre;  and,  in  a  contrary  direction,  diverging,  till  at  last  they  are  no  longer  visible 
to  one  another.  I  believe  that  historical  circumstances  might  be  adduced,  which  would  render  it 
highly  probable  that,  fifteen  hundred  years  A.C.,  the  people  speaking  all  the  then  existing  lan- 
guages, could,  though  perhaps  in  some  cases  with  difficulty,  understand  one  another. 

]  1.  If  we  consider  the  effect  of  these  numeral  letters  of  this  unspoken  language,  we  shall  imme- 
diately see  that,  when  the  numerals  or  ciphers  became  changed  into  letters,  they  would  necessa- 
rily come  to  be  read  and  pronounced,  sometimes  from  right  to  left,  and  sometimes  from  left  to 
ri^ht. 

After  man  had  made  the  discovery  of  the  sjllabic  word  liuaa,  as  described  above,  in  Section  2, 
p.  150,  perhaps  the  next  attempt  would  be  made  on  a  word  for  the  Sun,  in  the  following  manner. 
We  will  suppose  a  person  wished  to  record  the  Sun,  and  to  do  it  by  means  of  numbers  having  the 
names  of  trees,  these  numbers,  that  ifa  the  numerical  system,  having  so  far  advanced  as  to  be  sim- 
plified into  a  symbol  or  monogram  for  each  number  forwards — as  we  find  it  in  Greece.  He  would 
then  inscribe  it  thus,  in  right-lined  angled  symbols,  having  the  meaning  of  one  of  the  cycles  which 
I  suppose  him  to  have  invented. 

S1— C  the  sign  of  300,  called  Sail. 
U  i — V  the  sign  of      6,  called  Uenu 
L  — L   the  sign  of    30,  called  Luis. 

336    the  name  of  the  Lunar  Year. 
I  apprehend  that  the  names  of  all  things  would  be  at  the  first  monosyllables  of  the  simplest 


1  It  will  be  obfeeivcd  that  the  Author  heie,  as  in  many  other  instances,  conceived  himself  at  liberty  to  use  either 
Hebrew  or  Greek  letteis  for  his  numerals.    Editor 


BOOK   III.    CHAPTER   I.    SECTION    120  177 

kind  5  and  that  the  first  name  of  the  tree  called  Suil,  would  be5  not  two  syllables  of  four  letters, 
but  one  of  three — Sul,  which,  in  numbers,  gives  the  first  lunar  year  of  336  days.  Now,  when  a 
person  wrote  the  three  symbols  C V  L>  he  could  not  very  well  help  observing,  that  by  pronouncing 
the  three  first  sounds  of  the  three  names  of  the  three  trees,  he  would,  by  a  fortunate  and  remarka- 
ble accident,  have  the  sound  of  the  name  of  the  tree  SuL  Here,  then,  we  have  correctly  a  sound, 
Sul,  described  by  symbols  or  marks  which  were  now,  in  this  case,  become  letters,  each  maik  or 
letter  standing  for  a  sound,  and  the  three  marks  describing  a  sound,  a  number,  a  tree,  the  Sun,  and 
the  Lunar  year — in  all  having  five  meanings.  This  would  lead  him  to  try  if  he  could  not  describe 
other  things  as  he  described  this  tree  (now  unknown  to  us).  We  will  suppose  the  Eg,  as  an  ex- 
ample. He  would  look  for  a  tree  out  of  the  twenty-eight,  whose  name  should  begin  with  the 
sound  which  we  call  E,  and  he  would  find  Eadha,  the  sign  of  five,  and  having  the  mark  or  mono- 
gram E,  and  he  would  inscribe  E.  He  would  then  try  to  find  a  tree  which  had  a  name  that  began 
with  the  sound  which  we  call  G,  and  he  would  find  the  Gort,  having  the  mark  or  monogram  f""  ; 

he  would  then  inscribe  that  mark  below  the  other,  and  he  would  have  ,~-  >^    \  ?_.    Tims  he 

1     )Eg-t    1 
would  discover  the  art  of  using  the  monograms  or  symbols  for  numbers,  or  symbolic  numerals,  as 

letters  to  describe  syllables,  and  letters,  and  sounds,  and  the  symbols  for  the  numbers  would  thus 
become  letters. 

Now  the  next  word  of  letters  discovered  might  be  Suil  or  Suli,  found  in  the  same  manner  to 
denote  the  solar  cycle  of  366  thus, 

W  s-300  Suil, 

1  u—    6  Uern. 

^  Ir:  50  Luis, 

>  i=  10  lodha. 

366 

and  thus  the  Sul  changed  into  the  Suli  as  science  improved. 

This  is  the  Suli  Minerva  of  Bath— the  cycle  that  we  find  in  the  name  by  which  Stonehenge  was 
called  in  Welsh,  Emreis— that  is,  $:r5,  l*.~ 40,  /?zrlOO,  e~5,  fclO,  cr=200rr360  j  or,  y~S}  ju-40, 
pn:100,  ^  8,  fclOj  o"—gOOrz36(5.  In  Su-li  we  have  a  word  of  two  syllables ;  and  thus  we  advance 
another  step  in  literal  and  alphabetic  writing.  In  the  word  2^10  $fc63(),  salus,  health,  salvation, 
Ralus-bury,  we  have  another  step ;  and  our  word  Sun  has  probably  been  Sin— 360,  or  Sunir:366, 

The  word  tihw  means  three.  I  cannot  help  suspecting  this  to  refer  directly  to  the  Trinity.  It 
has  both  the  meaning  of  three  and  of  director  or  chief  or  DISPOSER,  as  £3>Ditf  smim  in  Gen,  i.  S.1 

12.  Joseph  was  considered  to  be  one  of  the  divine  incarnations  or  avatars  for  the  salvation  of 
the  Egyptians.  He  was  the  Phoinix  which  appeared  every  600  years.  6f  Et  vocavit  Parohjiomen 
"Joseph  Saphenath  Pahaneah"*  Ka/  exaXs<re  &apaa)  ra  Qvopa,  Lo<nj$,  SPoyfloft$ajty;g — 
ntyD  ru£)3f  zpnt-ponh.3  This  passage  is  rendered  by  Jerom,  " Fertitque  nomen  ejus  (Pharao)  et 
"  vocavit  eum,  Lingud  Egyptiacd,  SALVATOREM  MCNDI."  And  in  Suidas  Joseph  is  called  by  a 
name  still  more  curious:  "Cum  autem  FAUNUS  insidiis  appeteretur  &  propriis  Fratribus  in  Egyptum 
fugit4  The  Hebrew  word  has  been  rendered  Revealer  of  the  Secrets  of  the  Stars.  But  I  think 
no  one  can  doubt  what  the  Abb£  de  Rocher  has  pointed  out—- that  the  Faunus  and  m$Qpo?ih  is  the 

1  Vid.  Parkhurst  in  voce  »*?tt  sis,  IX.  3  Pagnin. 

3  Gen.  xli,  45,*  see  Vol.  I.  p,  502.  4  Diet,  de  Suidas,  verbo 

VOL.    II.  2  A 


178  JOSEPH,   PROTEtTS.      STALLS. 

Roman  Faunus  and  the  Phoinix.  But  Joseph  was  also  called  by  another  name  iD^ttf  slit.  Gen. 
xlii.  6.  l  In  the  B'Vtf  slit  and  oVttf  sft  we  have  a  trifling  mispetting  (if  any  attention  is  to  be  paid 
to  radical  letters)  of  the  feminine  termination  of  the  ^ttfczSGO,  for  the  origin  of  Salus,  Salutis,  for 
the  name  of  the  Sun,  the  Phoenix,  and  the  JRedemptor  or  Salvator  MundL  And  in  old  Irish  our 
female  Sail,  v  snSOO,  *>  £-30,  b  fc30=360,  means  a  year.2 

Several  authors  have  thought  that  the  Proteus  of  the  Greeks,  which  word  has  the  same  meaning 
as  B*/W  slit,  was  Joseph,  This,  I  think,  arose  from  his  repeated  incarnation  in  new  cycles  — 
different,  but  yet  the  same  —  in  each  cycle  a  Saviour  or  Redemptor  Mundi  ;  thus  they  made  him  a 
Proteus.  His  name  Psonthom  Phaneah,  is  our  Proteus,  or  Phantom,  and  the  Santon  of  the  Orien- 
tals. The  Phaneah  is  the  $yw~6Q8.3 

The  shrines  in  which  the  Gods  were  placed  in  India  were  called  Stalls.  These  are  the  stalls  of 
our  Cathedrals,  and  of  our  Cow-houses.  Hog,  in  his  history  of  Cornwall,4  says,  that  the  sanc- 
tuary of  the  God  Hu,  or  the  Sun,  or  the  Bacchus  of  the  Druids,  was  an  Ox-stall,  where  the  God 
presided  as  a  living  animal,  5  or  as  the  image  of  a  bull.  The  name  of  the  Bull,  in  the  numeral 
symbolic  letters,  I  have  no  doubt,  was  the  same  as  we  have  found  him  so  often.—  Stll,  or  Siz200, 
T—  300,  LL=  100—600.  6  When  the  numerals  became  letters,  the  habitation  of  the  Stll9  by  the 
regimen,  came  to  be  the  place  Sill.  In  this  way,  from  this  formation  of  the  Hebrew,  when  in 
regimine,  innumerable  words  took  their  origin.  I  believe  the  Hu>  which  is  the  common  name  of 
God  in  Wales,  is  only  a  corruption  of  the  Hebrew  pronoun  Klf7  eua,  meaning  HE.  In  India,  the 
Gods  are  placed  in  the  temples  in  stalla  or  stalls,  that  is,  recesses  or  places  of  safety.  In  the  West, 
the  Gods  were  placed  in  Cellae  and  CONCLAVIA.  Hence  come  the  cells  and  stalls  in  our  cathe- 
drals.7 The  Cell  is  the  ta>n  eifcl 

To  be  wise  is  to  be  enlightened.  Lux  is  the  Logos  by  whom  all  things  were  made  ;  and  the 
Logos  is  Rasit—  Rst,  p^crVr^eoO.  And  Lux  makes  Lucis  ;  then  LX,  ^V-650.  Again,  L—50, 
1  u=6,  w  srzSOO,  '  fclO,  ttf  5=300=666.  8  The  Fleur-de-Lis  is  the  Lotus,  the  flower  sacred  to 
the  Lux,  or  the  Sul,  or  the  Sun.  The  Auriflamme,  the  flame  of  fire  or  fire  of  gold,  9  was  the  stand- 
ard. The  three  Lotuses  or  Lises  were  the  coat  of  arms,  emblems  of  the  Trimurti,  the  three  per- 
sons of  the  triple  generative  power,  or  of  the  Sun  or  Lux.  r&ltf  sle,  Shilo,  is  probably  ^itf  sfcSGO, 
or  #—600,  ?L—  50—10,  l,—  6=666.  This  is  Silenus.  I  have  no  doubt  it  was  the  invocation  in  the 
Psalms,  called  Selah,  nbo  sle. 

The  Greek  word  'H?uo£  is  nothing  but  a  variation  of  the  Suli,  Sul,  and  Sol.  H,  ij,  is  the  Hebrew 
emphatic  article,  and  the  word  is  soil,  that  is,  suil,  and  5/2=360  or  366,  or  szfc336  ;  Sun  in  Sans- 
crit is  &ona,  the  first  three  letters  coalescing  into  one.  Hence  evidently  our  Sun.  Here  we  find 
the  meaning  of  Mount  Sion—  Mount  of  the  Sun  $  the  same  as  Har-ol-ump,  that  is,  Har-al-om, 


1  See  Parkhurst  in  voce  tt^ttf  *&.  From  e»W  the  word  Sultan  is  said  to  have  been  derived  j  but  it  is  from  the  woid 
sit  or  $lt> 

*  See  Guerin  de  Rocher,  Vol.  I  pp.  113-120;  Vol.  IL  p,  213  ;  Vol.  V,  p.  22. 

^  See  Vol.  L  pp.  169,  181,  199,  500,  587,  607-  4  Note  on  p.  158. 

5  This  was  the  Welsh  Bull  with,  three  Cranes  oa  his  back,  called  Bud  was  Trigeranon,  answering  to  the  Indian  Buddha 
Trivicrama-ditya,  or  Buddha  with  triple  energy,  as  explained  by  Col.  Tod. 

c  Here,  it  will  be  observed,  the  Author  again  quits  the  Hebrew,  and  makes  stll  equal  600,  partly  by  Greek  and  partly 
by  Roman  numerals.  Yet  see  his  note  5,  infra,  p.  187?  and  Chap,  il.  Sect.  1«  Editor. 

7  Jurieu,  Vol.  II.  p  248.  8  On  this  mixture  of  numerals  see  note  supra.    Editor. 

9  We  have  formerly  found  (Vol.  I.  p.  600)  the  %^<;  and  the  %pu$  connected*  The  %^$  was  an  incarnation  of  the  solar 
fin.  Here  the  aurum  and  aur,  the  gold,  and  the  j?re,  are  connected. 


BOOK  III.    CHAPTER  I.    SECTION  13.  ]J*g 

Mount  of  the  God  Oni.  Gebelin,  in  his  Monde  Primitif,  has  undertaken  to  prove,  that  the  minuet 
was  the  dance  oblique  of  the  ancient  priests  of  Apollo,  performed  in  their  temples.  "The  diagonal 
"  line,  and  the  two  parallels  described  in  this  dance,  were  intended  to  be  symbolical  of  the  Zodiac, 
"  and  the  twelve  steps  of  which  it  is  composed  were  meant  for  the  twelve  signs,  and  the 
"  months  of  the  year." 1  Little  do  our  village  girls,  when  dancing  round  the  May- pole,  and  our 
fine  ladies  when  dancing  the  Cotillon  Q  think,  that  they  are  exhibiting  the  most  profound 
astronomical  learning;  but  they  are  doing  so  nevertheless.  Dancing  was  originally  merely  reli- 
gious, intended  to  assist  the  memory  in  retaining  the  sacred  learning  which  originated  previous  to 
the  invention  of  letters.  It  began  in  sense,  it  is  continued  in  nonsense.  But  why  not?  Does  it 
not  make  them  happy?  Then  merrily  may  the  bonny  lasses  dance 5  they  shall  never  be  disturbed 
by  me.  Alas  !  disturbance  will  come  soon  enough,  without  me. 

The  Salii  were  Sulii  or  priests  of  Sul,  who  was  worshiped  with  circular  dances,  whence  the 
French  or  Franks,  who  were  peculiarly  attached  to  the  dancing  superstition,  were  called  Salii. 
The  president  of  the  college  of  Salii  in  Rome  was  called  Prsesul — our  officer  is  called  Consul. 
Indeed  I  believe,  that  there  were  no  parts  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  antiquity,  which  were 
«ot  adopted  with  a  view  to  keep  in  recollection  the  ancient  learning,  before  letters  were  known. 
Thus,  as  I  have  just  said,  that  which  began  in  sense  is  continued  in  nonsense;  for  since  the  art  of 
writing  has  become  known,  all  forms  and  ceremonies  are  really  nonsense.  But  it  served  the  pur- 
pose of  the  priests  to  retain  them,  and  that  is  the  real  reason  of  their  continuance.  It  was  the 
same  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Jews.  The  whole  system  was  held  to  be  a  microcosm  of  the  Deity, 
the  Templum,  a  part  of  it,  and  with  reference  to  this  every  part  of  it  had  a  meaning.  But  I  shall 
discuss  the  microcosm  at  large  in  a  future  book.  It  may  be  enough  to  notice  here,  as  one  example, 
the  fringe  of  the  Jewish  dress,  which  is  formed  of  cords  knotted  in  fives  and  sixes,  and  tens  and 
twelves,  of  knots  contrived,  as  the  Jews  say,  so  as  to  form,  in  their  various  combinations,  the 
number  600,  and  the  name  of  it  is  JVSPJf  zizit,  which  is  n  fc400,  >  a= 10,  %  s— 90,  >  fcrlO,  2f  srrQOr: 
600,  In  these  fringes,  directed  to  be  worn  on  the  garments,  and  to  be  looked  upon  in  a  particular 
manner,  (and  called  600,)  we  have,  if  I  mistake  not,  an  example  of  Moses,  under  divine  direction* 
practising  that  which  Sir  William  Drumrnond  called  buffoonery^  But  this  word  has  several 
meanings,  which  are  remarkable.  As  *x  zi  it  describes  exactly  the  earns  of  Tibet,  of  Scotland,  of 
Ireland,  and  of  Arabia  also,  a  very  striking  and  important  identity.3  It  also  means  a  flower,  and 
a  thiirplate  of  metal. 4  The  temple  was  a  microcosm  of  the  globe.  The  high  priest  in  his  pon- 
tificals in  the  Sanctum  Sanctorum,  surrounded  with  his  Tzizit,  was  a  microcosm  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  with  its  flowers,  in  the  garden  of  delight.  The  flowers  are  said  to  be  of  the  colour  of 
the  Hyacinth,  as  I  understand,  because  it  is  blue }  but  I  think  this  is  not  the  meaning.  The  Lotus 
of  the  Nile  is  blue.  I  shall  probably  return  to  this.  The  parcels  of  knots  in  five  and  sixes,  with 
their  various  combinations,  are  beautifully  descriptive  of  the  lustrums,  and  of  combinations  to  form 
the  double  cycles  of  3()0  and  432. 5  Here  we  see  more  proofs  of  what  Pythagoras  meant,  when  he 
said,  that  all  science  resolved  itself  into  numbers. 

13,  We  will  now  try  to  find  the  meaning  of  the  word  Solomon ;  often  spelt  Soleiman,  Sulimon, 


1  Hog's  Hist.  Corn.  p.  460.  s  See  Numb,  xv,  38,  39 ;  Deut.  xxii.  12. 

3  Vide  Purkhurst  in  voce.  *  Vide  jRy. 

5  The  Catholic  beads  and  a  string  of  them  called  a  Rosary  are  the  same.    The  Rosary  is  from  the  word  ras  wisdom; 
the  Bead,  in  like  manner,  is  from  the  word  Ved,  or  Wisdom,    Beten,  in  German,  is  to  pray. 


180  SOLOMON. 


Suleimon,  and  flebw  slme.  Pezron  has  found  the  word  Sol  for  Sun  among  the  Celts,  and  I  consider 
that,  having  it  in  Latin,  we  have  it  in  the  Etruscan.  We  have  it  also,  I  think,  in  the  language  of 
ancient  Britain,  in  the  Fons  Solis  at  Bath.  As  we  have  just  seen,  the  first  word  Sol,  or  Sul,  or  Suli, 
forms  the  cycles  of  336  and  of  366,  and  spelt  with  an  X  or  D  final,  probably  of  666.  The  second  word 
is  the  D3=90,  and  also  CttzrtoO.  This  MN  or  Menu  was  in  a  particular  manner  the  symbol  of 
mind.  Minos  or  Menu  or  Numa  was  a  wise  lawgiver.  The  Mn  formed  the  only  animal  in  the 
creation  possessing  mind,  called  man  for  this  reason.  Thus  the  wisdom  of  the  Sun  became  Solo- 
mon.1 With  reference  to  the  same  mythos  we  have  the  Lm  650,  the  Lam  or  Lam-da,  holy  LM, 
and  L  M  B=7'2,  and  the  Men-des  or  holy  Goat,  which  is  the  same  as  the  Sheep.  And  when 
science  improved,  we  have  the  M^alone  equal  to  600.  With  reference  to  the  same,  we  have  the 
fig-tree  called  Lamed,  the  sacred  tree  of  the  Indians,  which  fructifies  in  its  own  peculiar  manner 
something  like  the  Lotus.  *  We  have  also  Mount  Meru,  called  by  the  Siamese  Menu,  or,  at  least, 
Maria  called  Mania,  which,  combined  with  the  circumstances  that  we  have  seen  relating  to  mounts 
and  meres  of  the  Aja  or  Lamb  and  Goat,  justify  a  suspicion  that  Meru  was  Menu.  With  refe- 
rence to  this,  the  centre  letter  of  the  two  Irish  alphabets  is  in  one  called  Moiria,  and  in  the  other 
Muin,  substituting  the  N  and  R  for  one  another,  but  each  the  centre  letter.  I  cannot  help  sus- 
pecting, that  all  our  Meres  and  Marias  were  corruptions  of  Menus  or  arose  from  them.  I  think  it 
probable  that  Salman-asar  was  the  Caesar  Solomon  —  Salmon-^Esar. 

The  second  person  of  the  Trinity  being  an  incarnation  of  the  solar  power,  the  word  to  si  came 
to  mean  Saviour,3  and  from  this  comes  the  word  abw  slum>  and  obw  slm9  peace,  and  rhw  s.le, 
Shilo,  Saviour,  as  is  proved  by  his  being  called  by  Onkelos  KIWD  msiha,  that  is,  THE  Saviour  or 
THE  Messiah.  From  this  we  may  now  see  where  the  Soli  or  Suli-Minerva  of  Bath  comes  from. 
She  comes  from  the  Saviour  Minerva  thus  :  Sol  or  Sul  is  Saviour,  as  the  Sun  is  always  called, 
therefore  the  Sul  is  both  Sun  and  Saviour,  and  Miner  is  also  Saviour.4  fte  plz  is  the  same  as 
the  Pala  noticed  by  me  in  another  place,  and  is  the  origin  of  the  Pallas.5 

I  imagine  that  the  following  is  the  true  translation  of  2  Samuel  xii.  24  and  25  :  "And  he  called 
his  name  Solomon  (HDto  slme),  and  leue  loved  him.  And  Nathan  the  prophet  put  his  hand  upon 
him  (TO-nto'l  uislh-lid}  and  called  him  after  leue,  (or  on  account  of  IE  *"|DJD  bobur)  Jedidiah," 
(ITTT  ididie)  that  is,  the  most  holy  IE,  or,  in  Hebrew  idiom,  Holy,  Holy  IE.  Here  we  have  the 
%£iporQVict,  and  Christening,  or  giving  the  Christian  name,  usually  given  with  us  at  the  baptism. 
I  assume  that  the  i  d  in  the  word  YH  Ud  ought  to  be  *i  r.  With  this  the  whole  is  sense,  without 
it  the  whole  is  nonsense;  and  I  think  most  Hebrew  scholars  who  shall  go  through  my  work,  and 
see  all  the  proofs  which  I  shall  give  of  my  theory,  will  agree  with  me  that  the  emendation  ought 
to  be  made, 

The  Milyans  of  Lycia  were  called  SolymL    They  were  also  called  Telmissi  and  Termillians.6 
They  came  from  Crete.    At  Miletus  was  the  crucified  Apollo,  —  Apollo  who  overcame  the  serpent, 
jn£)  jwftt,  or  the  evil  principle.    Thus  Callimachus  celebrating  this  achievement,  in  his  hymn  to 
Apollo,  has  these  remarkable  words,  lines  103,  104-— 


1  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  monkey  was  called  Hanuman  from  the  same  principle,  and  that  the  word  Hanu  was  a 
a  word  of  qualification,  as  perhaps,  Mf-ma&  or  Inferior  man. 

*  Vail  Coll  Hib.  Vol.  V,  p.  130.  3  See  Parkhurst  under  rhv  sle  and  ato  dm, 

4  See  Pausanias,  and  also  Parkhurst  in  voce  ")JQ  mnr  and  fisplz  II,  where  she  is  shewn  to  be  the  same  as  Venus, 
and  to  mean  the  generative  power  of  the  Heavens  j  and  the  same  as  nWK  asre  Venus  or  the  Saviour.    See  Parkhurst 
asr,  IV. 

Vol.  I.  pp,  629,  630.  e  See  Beloe's  Herodotus,  Vol  I.  p.  236. 


BOOK  III.   CHAPTER   I.   SECTION  14.  181 


—  £v0v  o-e  MHTHP 
A022HTHPA 

"  Thee  thy  blest  mother  bore,  and  pleased  assign'd 
The  willing  Saviour  of  distress'cl  mankind."    DODD.J 

From  this  root  also  come  the  word  "MID  ptr,  to  expound  or  interpret  dreams,  and  11DD  ptur,  inter- 
pretation, and  paterae  leaves,  i.  e.  the  divining  leaves  of  the  Sibyl;2  also  the  name  of  a  town  in 
Mesopotamia,  (Numb.  xxii.  5 ;  Deut.  xxiii.  4,)  from  an  oracle  at  that  place,  and  Patrse  in  Achaia, 
and  Patara  in  Lycia,  from  an  oracular  temple  of  Apollo,  whence  Horace  calls  him  Patareus, 
Hence  also  the  priests  among  the  Gauls  were  called  Paterae. 3  Whence  also  came  the  little 
images  of  the  Phoenicians  Haraimi  or  Patgeci  by  Herodotus.  In  Python,  the  Serpent,  may  be 
found  the  destroyer,  the  Evil  Spirit.  Apollo  was,  I  doubt  not,  the  son  of  one  of  the  females  to 
whom  we  find  the  altars  inscribed  with  the  words  Tribus  Mariebus,  who  was  the  Virgo  Paritura 
of  Egypt  and  Gaul.  Patra  or  Patta,  in  Sanscrit,  means  a  leaf.  The  cups  used  in  sacrifice  in 
Sanscrit  are  called  Pateras,  and  are  made  of  a  large  leaf.  The  Greek  word  Petalon  is  the  same  as 
this.4 

14.  We  may  suppose  another  of  the  earliest  words  discovered,  precisely  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  Sul,  would  be  C>  '5  W5  denoting  360.  I  suppose  that  the  words  which  we  found  above, 
pp,  160, 161,  to  stand  for  the  cycle  of  fourteen,  namely,  d£  or  id,  in  order  perhaps  to  imprint  the  day 
strongly  on  the  memory,  or  from  religious  motives,  had  become  sacred  or  holy. 

Now  we  will  suppose  man  called  a  certain  river  the  river  of  the  Solar  orb :  he  would,  in  nume- 
ral letters,  first  call  it  the  river  of  Sin,  or  360,  and  next,  the  river  of  the  sacred  or  holy  Sin— and 
that  would  be  Sindi;  which  was  the  name  of  a  sacred  river  in  Thrace,  and  of  the  river  Indus  in 
India— one  the  river  of  the  JEWS  of  Thrace,  and  the  other  the  boundary  of  the  great  Mesopotamia 
of  loudia  or  Ayoudia  or  Judaa  of  India.5  But  the  important  part  of  this  observation  to  us,  at  the 
present,  is,  that  we  have  got  another  name  of  two  syllables. 

Bud  is  Bzr2,  D=:4z:6,  the  root  of  439,  Father  is  ab,  abba.  He  is  the  first  of  all  created  and 
creating  beings;  thus  he  is  Bn2,  A:rl—  3,  the  Trimurti,  and  the  root  of  almost  innumerable 
superstitious  fancies  about  the  generation  of  numbers.  Thus,  also,  Ab-ba  3-f  3,  the  root  again  of 
the  cycle  of  432,  a  Roman  Lustrum.  I  suspect  Abba  was  both  parent  and  father;  as  Beeve  is 
both  cow  and  bull;  and  as  Khan  was  both  king  and  queen. 

We  have  found  God  called  Ad,  in  India,  and  iu  Western  Syria.  A,  is  one,  and  d,  is  di— holy 
one  or  monad.  And  the  word  Monad  is  Mn  650,  di,  holy,  A,  one,  the  holy  one,  or  To  ON  ;  that 
is,  ON,  the  Generative  power,6  called  *HX*0£  by  the  Greeks. 

Every  thing  was  microcosinic :  Adam  and  Eve,  made  after  the  image  of  God,  were  a  microcosm 
of  Brahme  and  Maia, 7  their  three  sons  a  microcosm  of  the  Trimurti.  Noah,  his  wife,  and  three 
sons,  were  the  same.  It  would  have  been  singular  if  we  had  not  found  Adam  and  Eve  in  the 
arithmetical  language.  Q1N  adm,  is  I  (or  the  Monad  or  root)  of  the  di,  holy,  cycle  of  Om  or  M, 
— the  God  described  on  the  fringe  of  the  priest's  garment. 


i  Parkhurst,  p.  602.  *  See  Celtic  Druids,  p.  93.  3  See  Bocliart,  Vol  I,  p,  666. 

*  Asiat  Res.  Vol.  VI  p.  499. 

5  The  river  Sind  is  also  called  Abba-Sin,  or  father  Sin.  (Tod's  Essay  on  the  Indian  and  Theban  Hercules,  Trans. 
Asiat*  Soc.)  I  have  little  or  no  doubt  from  the  word  (Abyssinian)  Abbasinian,  that  the  Upper  Nile  was  once  called 
Sin-di,  or  Abba-Sin.  The  term  father  was  constantly  applied  to  the  Nile  in  Egypt—as  we  wy,  father  Thames, 

«  See  Vol,  I.  p.  109.  »  Ibid,  p.  348. 


162  CRYPTOGRAPHY,  INDIAN. 

In  Volume  I.  p.  643,  I  say  that  the  word  ay  ob  has  the  meaning  of  Serpent,  and  that  I  shall 
explain  this  in  a  future  page.  The  letter  a  b  denotes  2,  and  the  letter  y  o  denotes  70,  and  the  two 
denote  the  recurring  cycle  72,  the  most  common,,  and,  perhaps,  important  of  all  the  sacred  cycles, 
but  not  more  common  or  important  than  its  emblem  the  Serpent. 

Why  did  Jesus  say  he  founded  his  church  upon  a  rock  or  stone  ?  I  have  shewn  (in  note  2  of 
Volume  L  p.  34(5)  the  word  stan  or  stone,  both  in  India  and  Europe,  to  have  the  same  meaning  \ 
therefore  it  follows,  that  it  is  a  very  old  word,  probably  an  arithmetical  word.  May  it  have  been 
c-'nSOO,  T'HSOO,  y— 50,  v'=50,  stnn  cycle  of  600?  It  is  very  true,  that  the  whole  system  was 
founded  upon  that  cycle.  What  was  the  loadstone,  which  I  have  supposed  carried  in  the  Amphi- 
prtimna  as  its  mast,  the  mast  of  Cockayne,1  of  Minerva,  of  Wisdom,  but  L'-di-stone  the  holy 
stone  ?  It  was,  most  assuredly,  of  all  inanimate  things,  the  best  emblem  of  Wisdom.  What  can 
be  more  precious  than  the  magnet  ?  This  is  highly  figurative,  no  doubt;  but  who  can  deny  that 
the  language  of  Jesus  was  figurative,  and  as  highly  figurative  too  ?  Tffis  Lapis  would  be  the  Lapis 
of  600  5  then,  by  regimine,  the  lapis  stnn. 

I  am  quite  certain  that  no  one  who  considers  that  Jesus  taught  in  parables,  as  he  said,  that  he 
might  not  be  understood,  will  think  it  unreasonable  to  go  to  an  senigma  for  the  meaning  of  the 
^enigmatical  expression  to  Simon  Peter,  Cephas,  Pierre,  Thou  art  Petw9  and  upon  this  rock  I  will 
build  my  church;  Matt  xvi.  18.  Now  I  think  the  stone  on  which  Jesus  meant  to  found  his 
church,  was  Saxum,  Sax,  Saca,  in  short,  Buddha  or  divine  wisdom.  This  is  in  perfect  keeping 
with  other  equivoques  which  Jesus  is  said  to  have  used.  The  stone  of  Sax  would  become  the 
stone  Sax,  with  the  Latin  termination.  Jesus  Christ  was  a  disciple  of  Buddha  \  that  is,  of  Divine 
Wisdom.  Who  will  deny  this  ?  Thus  we  come  at  the  first  name  of  Buddha,  Saca.  Littleton 
bays,  Saxum  a  stone—  <ra|o)  Trsrpa,  yhb  slo,  K->3<pa$?  Chald.  et  Syr.  K*B»S  kipia,  Heb.  *p  kp. 
A  play  upon  language,  or  an  equivoque  being  clearly  meant,  no  objection  can  be  taken  to  an  ex- 
planation arising  from  an  equivoque.  Sax  is  evidently  divine  wisdom,  Buddha.  It  is  also  a  stone, 
the  anointed  stone  of  Jacob,  the  emblem  of  the  generative  power  or  wisdom.  Now,  when  I  reflect 
upon  the  way  in  which  our  c  has  changed  to  s,  and  to  £",  and  upon  the  collateral  circumstances,  in 
defiance  of  rules  of  etymology  I  am  induced  to  suspect  that  the  *p  kp  is  the  *DD  spr  or  letter 
which  we  have  found  always  connected  with  wisdom,  and  the  Zephir  or  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  that 
it  is  also  Sup  and  Soph. 

15.  The  works  of  Fabricius  shew  that  the  Cryptographic  writing  by  ciphers  was  common  with 
the  early  fathers  of  the  church ;  but  this  was  practised  in  India  to  a  much  later  date,  as  may  be 
seen  in  Col.  Tod's  Rajahstan;2  even  to  the  year  1204  of  the  Hegira, 

The  work  noticed  by  Col.  Tod  is  said  to  have  been  written  by  a  man  who  styles  himself  a 
Shufeek  of  Arungabad,  or,  as  the  Colonel  says,  "  Rhymer  of  Arungabad."  I  doubt  not  that  he 
was  a  poet,  but  he  was  also,  probably,  a  Shufeek  or  Sophee*  The  work  is  called  Bisat-al-Gnae'm, 
or,  in  one  sense,  "Display  of  the  Foe?'  but  it  is  meant  also  by  these  words,  the  Colonel  says,  to 
describe  the  year  1204,  in  which  it  was  written.  He  gives  "  the  numerical  value  of  the  letters 
which  compose  the  title"  thus : 

«  B.  S.  A.  T.  a,  1.   G.   N.  A,  E.  M. 
2.  60. 1.  9.  1.  9.1000.50.  1.  10.  40,"=1183. 

In  Hebrew  numerals  it  would  stand  thus : 


3  See  Volume  I.  pp.  340,  344,  345.  2  Vol.  I.  235, 


BOOK    III.   CHAPTER  I.     SECTION  15. 


183 


No  form l 


-J> 

D 

60 

tf 

Aleph   

1 

fa 

Teth  ,  .  , 

9 

ft 

1 

*> 

G  

1000 

5 

...,.,.,       50 

N 

1 

> 

10 

n 

40 

1204    t 

Bsat-al-Gnaim. 


Here  we  have  a  writing  containing  two  meanings.  I  suspect  this  was  the  case  with  the  whole  of 
Genesis ;  that  it  had  a  meaning  for  the  learned  and  for  the  vulgar. 

The  Colonel  observes,  "as  the  total  is  only  1183,  either  the  date  is  wrong,  or  a  deficient  value 
"  is  given  to  the  numerals  j"  but  the  mistake  is  in  giving  the  power  of  9  to  the  Lamed  instead  of 
30.  This  correction  brings  it  right.  Here  we  have  the  Cryptographic  writing  in  a  very  late  date, 
and  it  is  in  the  Hebrew  names  of  letters  in  India.  I  have  not  satisfied  myself  as  to  its  real  Hebrew 
meaning,  but  I  suspect  it  means  to  compare  the  uncivilized  or  early  princes  of  Mewar  to  a  plan- 
tation or  garden  of  wild  grapes.  But  it  furnishes  a  very  strong  support  to  my  doctrine  that  the 
Hebrew  was  the  root  of  all  their  Indian  languages. 

If  figures  were  the  origin  of  letters,  that  is,  the  first  letters,  all  the  original  names  of  the  Gods 
would  naturally  be  numerical ;  and  it  seems  natural  that  they  should  often  remain  as  we  find 
them  5  but  not  in  like  manner  other  names.  It  seems  also  natural,  if  notation  were  discovered  by 
placing  stones  at  the  side  of  each  other,  as  was  probably  the  case,  that  addition,  from  perpendicu- 
lar lines,  should  have  been  the  first  operation.  The  first  of  these  operations  would  be  to  record 
time,  moons,  years,  cycles,— and  the  collection  would  form  the  first  name  of  the  planet  whose 
cycle  it  rcorded.  Thus  the  first  name  of  the  moon  would  be,  as  we  have  found  it  above,  p.  151, 
Evohe, ! 


1  May  not  ^  have  borne  the  same  numerical  value  as  £  in  the  cognate  Arabic  or  Persian  ?  As  Col.  Tod  gives  E=:  10fl 
the  Author  seems  fully  justified  in  substituting  >= 10,  in  the  word  Gna&n.  Editor. 

3  The  Egyptians  revered  the  Moon  under  the  emblem  of  a  Cat.  Here,  in  our  English,  I  doubt  not  that  we  have 
nearly  the  first  name  of  the  Moon.  Kaph^SO*  A* I,  Teth=9=*30~ Kit.  The  Irish  Phennicshe  made  608;  the 
4wv »608 ,  in  Coptic,  0w -600.  The  Chaldeans  called  the  Phoenix  yh*  ^o-Caph  final«500,  Laroed^SO,  Oin =70- 
600.  The  Yug  (or  age  as  it  ought  to  be  called)  of  Cali  or  Clo=:600.  As  we  have  found  the  famous  State  of  Western 
Syria  called  Phcenic-ia,  that  is,  the  Phenmoshe  of  Ireland,  (vide  Celtic  Druids,)  and  w,  that  is,  country  of  Phennic&he  or 
of  Phenn,  it  is  very  natural  to  expect  its  capital  would  have  a  name  from  the  same  kind  of  mythology:  thus  we  have, 


Sidn 


»-  10 
i«  4 
i-  50 

"364 


',R.H,orTyre. 


Its  daughter  might  be  called 


[This,  however  ingenious,  appears  vei  y  doubtful,  as  Sidon  or  Zidon  was  not  spelt  with  »  but  with  y.    See,  in 


184 


VOWEL  POINTS, 


16.  I  must  now  return  for  a  moment  to  the  subject  of  the  ancient  vowels.  (The  vowel  points 
of  the  Hebrew  I  have  long  since  proved  in  the  Classical  Journal,  and  in  the  Appendix  to  my  first 
\  chime,  to  be  modem.)  It  has  constantly  been  said,  that  all  ancient  written  languages  were 
without  vowels.  This,  I  have  no  doubt,  has  passed  down  as  a  tradition  from  the  earliest  times, 
like  many  other  old  sayings  without  thought,  by  ignorant  people.  It  is  not  true,  and  never  was 
true  of  any  of  them,  as  a  person  may  at  once  satisfy  himself  by  looking  into  any  of  the  old  lan- 
guages. But  it  was  partly  true.  The  least  consideration  of  the  manner  in  which  I  have  shewn 
that  the  system  of  figures  grew  into  a  system  of  symbolic  letters  will  prove,  that  it  could  not  be 
otherwise  than  as  it  is,  and  this  will  tend  strongly  to  prove  the  truth  of  my  whole  system.  For  it 
is  evident  that,  after  the  trees  acquired  names,  and  the  figures  were  called  after  the  trees,  and  the 
fiist  unspoken  but  written  language  was  made  by  using  the  figures  or  ciphers,  whether  the  words 
\tere  composed  out  of  the  forms  which  were  afterward  vowels  or  consonants  or  both,  as  in  the 
word  iivaa  for  28,  it  would  be  merely  an  effect  depending,  in  each  case,  upon  the  contingency 
whether  the  names  of  the  trees  used  began  with  a  vowel  or  a  consonant;  this  is  the  reason  why, 
IP  the  twenty-eight  letters,  we  have  several  letters  with  the  same  sound,  though  of  different 
powers  of  notation.  In  this  case  the  names  of  several  of  the  trees  must  have  begun  with  the  same 
letter ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why,  in  the  words  of  the  first  language,  the  vowels  and  consonants 
are  mixed  without  any  system  whatever.  In  some  words  there  are  no  vowels,  others  consist  in 
part  of  vowels,  and  some  of  all  vowels }  and  this  takes  place  in  the  Celtic,  the  Hebrew,  in  fact,  in 
every  language  which  we  have  been  able  to  trace  up  to  a  very  remote  antiquity,  and  among  them 
was  anciently  included  the  Greek. 

If  I  wished  to  form  a  word  from  the  names  of  three  symbols,  and  if  those  names  began  with 
three  consonants,  the  word  would  have  three  consonants :  if,  of  a  consonant  and  a  vowel,  as  Beth 
and  Eadha,  it  would  be  written  BE;  if,  of  two  consonants,  as  Duir  and  Luis,  it  would  have  no 
vowel,  but  merely  two  consonants,  D  L.  In  this  manner  most  words  would  be  written  almost 
without  vowels.  But  after  some  time  the  same  cause  which  made  man  have  recourse  to  the  sound 
of  the  first  parts  of  the  names  of  trees,  would  occasionally  induce  him,  in  order  to  enable  him  to 
pronounce  a  word,  to  add  a  vowel  answering  to  the  sound  in  the  words,  where  it  could  not  other- 
vtibe  be  spoken.  The  first  syllable  of  almost  all  words  may  be  pronounced  without  a  vowel,  but 
not  the  second.  Thus  we  have  much  oftener  a  vowel  in  the  second  part  of  a  word  than  in  the 
first ;  but  there  is  nothing  like  a  rule.  It  is  evident  that  this  process  arose  solely  from  the  letters 
having  been  taken  from  the  first  sounds  of  the  names  of  the  trees  of  which  the  letters  were  formed  5 
as,  D  from  Duir.  The  order  of  the  figures  is  natural,  as  it  is  natural  that  two  should  follow  one, 
and  three  two ;  but  the  order  of  the  letters  arose  solely  from  the  names  of  the  trees  attached  to 
the  numbers  having  the  respective  sounds  in  their  first  letters.  For  instance  \  A  is  the  first  letter, 
because  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  word  Ailm,  which  stands  for  the  first  number  or  number  one.  If 
written  language  had  been  formed  by  the  premeditation  and  reflection  of  Grammarians  and  Philo- 
bophers,  we  should  have  had  the  alphabet  in  a  very  different  order ;  we  shoul^  have  had  all  the 
labial  letters  together,  all  the  dentals  together,  all  the  vowels  together,  &c.,  and  not,  as  it  is  now, 
in  the  order  of  notation.  This  orderly  system  in  the  Sanscrit  tends  strongly  to  prove  it,  compa- 
ratively speaking,  a  modern  and  artificial  language.  Indeed  I  think  it  does  prove  it  to  be  so.  I 
can  readily  suppose  that,  after  man  had  found  out  how  to  make  a  syllable  by  taking  the  first  letters 
of  two  words,  as  in  the  case  of  Id  for  14,  he  would  easily  form  other  syllables  by  taking  the  sounds 

Hebrew,  Gen.  x.  15,  19;  Judges  xuii.  28;  1  Chion.  i.  13.    Sidon  or  Zicion  would,  therefore,  signify,  in  numbers, 
154 ;  and  to  justify  mn  being  considered  as  equal  to  603,  the  n  must  be  taken  fjr  the  Greek  if.   Editor^ 


BOOK  III,     CHAPTER    I.     SECTION   1?.  ]g5 

of  the  first  letters  of  words,  or  beginnings  of  words,  to  form  other  syllables ;  as  I  have  shewn  that 
he  would  take  the  first  of  Duir  and  the  first  of  Gort,  to  make  Dog  or  Dg. 

17.  The  art  of  acrostic  writing,  which  we  find  in  the  Tamul,  the  Psalms,  the  Runes  of  Scandi- 
navia, &c.9  arose  from  the  mode  of  making  out  a  word  from  the  first  letters  of  numbers.  The 
word  IIVAA  is  really  an  acrostic;  and  it  was  this  which  led  the  ancients  into  the  apparently 
foolish  practice  of  acrostic  writing,  of  which  we  find,  in  the  languages  and  works  above  enu- 
merated, so  many  examples.  The  words  Bisat-al-Gnaim  for  1204,  lately  quoted  from  Colonel 
Tod,  are  correctly  an  acrostic. 

Mr.  Mallet  has  observed,  « that  the  ancient  Scandinavian  poetry  abounded  with  acrostics  of 
"  various  kinds,  as  much  as  the  Hebrew  ;"*  the  Scandinavian,  that  is,  the  Saxon. 

The  practice  to  which  our  grammarians  have  given  the  scientific  or  technical  name  of  Anagram, 
partly  arose  from  the  accidental  transposition  of  the  letters  of  a  word,  when  changing  the  writing 
from  the  numeral  system  or  system  of  ciphers,  and  from  the  top  downwards,  to  the  literal  and 
horizontal,  and  partly  from  indifference  as  to  the  order  in  which  the  letters  stood,  when  the  language 
was^in  unspoken  symbols.  With  respect  to  language,  I  believe  our  grammarians  give  too  much 
credit  to  system,  and  by  no  means  enough  to  what  we  call  accident.  A  moment's  reflection  will 
shew  any  one  that,  in  the  unspoken  language  of  numerical  symbols,  it  was  not  of  the  least  conse- 
quence in  what  order  the  symbols  were  placed.  For  instance,  in  the  word  Sul,  whether  it  were 
Slu  or  Sul,  precisely  the  same  idea  would  be  conveyed.  This  was  the  origin  of  Anagrams  and 
Metathesis,  to  which  we  have  given  these  fine  names. 

This  explanation  of  the  hitherto  unexplained  deficiency  of  the  Hebrew  and  Celtic  vowels,  seems 
to  me  to  be  the  most  satisfactory  of  any  part  of  my  system,  and  to  connect  the  whole  together  as 
perfectly  as  could  be  expected  in  cases  of  this  kind.  The  number  of  characters  in  the  old  Arabic 
and  other  systems  having  the  same  names,  for  instance,2  the  three  D's,  shew,  that  they  were 
originally  never  intended  for  letters,  but  merely  for  numbers. 

J  am  of  opinion  that  the  Eastern  or  Cadmasan  system,  as  the  Greeks,  called  it,  was  originally 
invented  from  the  Arabic,  and  was  kept  a  great  mystery  by  the  Masons,  who  were  of  the  tribe  or 
religion  of  the  Chaldeans  and  of  the  loudi  of  Thrace.  That  the  loudi  were  the  persons  who  in- 
vented it,  I  shall  endeavour  to  shew  by  and  by.  The  irregular  and  unsystematic  use  of  vowels 
shews  that  the  change  from  the  use  of  ciphers  or  figures  or  symbols  to  letters,  was  done  without 
any  system  or  contrivance  which  had  language  or  literature  for  its  object.  The  selection  of  the 
sixteen  letters,  both  in  Syria  and  in  Greece,  shews  signs  of  the  religious  mystery,  and  in  Greece, 
particularly,  it  shews  that  the  leaf  or  petala  system  or  practice  was  abandoned,  in  part,  from  com- 
pliance  with  the  sacred  mythos  \vhich  prevailed.  At  first,  after  letters  were  discovered,  the  initial 
of  the  name  of  every  number  would  form  a  letter,  but  several  numbers  being  called  after  trees 
whose  names  began  with  letters  having  the  same  sounds,  only  one  would  be  retained,  and  thus 
only  sixteen  or  seventeen  were  kept  in  use.  The  characters  of  the  trees  also  shew,  that  they  did 
not  arise  from  premeditation  5  for,  if  they  had,  such  trees  as  the  Spanish  chestnut  and  the  pine 
would  have  been  selected.  I  can  imagine  no  other  cause  for  the  selection  but  accident.  But  they 
are  all  inhabitants  of  high  latitudes.  They  would  thrive  equally  in  Tartary  and  in  Ireland. 

Endless  is  the  nonsense  which  has  been  written  respecting  the  ten  Jewish  Sephiroths ;  but 
Moore  has,  perhaps,  alone  explained  them.  Their  name,  in  fact,  tells  us  what  they  are.  They 
are  well  known  to  be  ten  symbols;  and  what  is  Sepher  but  Cipher  ?— the  ciphers  of  notation  up 
to  ten,  which,  it  is  evident,  contained  in  themselves,  in  the  numeral  language  or  language  of 

1  Northern  Ant.  Vol.  II.  p.  144.  •  See  my  Prel,  Ob,  Sect.  52, 

VOL,   II.  2  B 


186  THE  NUMBER   NINE. 

ciphers,  in  its  endless  combinations,  all  knowledge  or  wisdom  ?     This  was  really  Cabalistic. 1 
This  was  the  meaning  of  the  aenigma  of  Pythagoras,  that  every  thing  proceeded  from  numbers. 

In  this  language  of  ciphers,  every  cipher  or  figure,  to  a  certain  extent,  was,  of  course,  the  sym- 
bol of  a  word,  viz.  to  9  inclusive.  At  first  this  would  be  the  case  up  to  28,  and  if  we  look  to  the 
tree  alphabet,  we  shall  see  each  of  the  grammata  or  lines,  by  means  of  the  ligature,  made  into  one. 
After  the  Arabic  notation  was  invented,  although  all  the  figures  from  9  to  99  would  consist  of  two 
symbols,  they  were  in  fact  representatives  of  but  one  idea.  Basnage  says,  that  the  writing  on  Bel- 
shazzar's  wall,  interpreted  by  Daniel,  consisted  of  but  a  letter  or  symbol  for  a  word  $  this  is  correctly 
cipher  writing.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  Chaldaean  Daniel  should  have  possessed  this  Cabalistic 
knowledge  or  the  art  of  writing  the  symbols  in  some  phosphoretic  preparation,  which  should  only 
be  visible,  perhaps,  when  shaded  from  the  lights.  M.  Basnage  remarks,  that  the  same  practice 
was  observed  on  ancient  inscriptions,  where  a  letter  or  symbol  stands  for  a  word.  For  various 
mystical  or  superstitious  purposes  the  Greek  alphabet  was  varied  from  the  Asiatic  one,  and  if  we 
look  to  other  alphabets,  we  shall  be  able  to  perceive  superstition  at  work,  and  the  same  supersti- 
tion,—the  same  gratification  of  the  passion  or  fashion  of  making  riddles  or  senigmas,  which  really 
seems  to  have  been  the  leading  occupation  of  the  priests,  or  initiated,  for  many  generations ;  in 
fact,  in  all  time  before  Herodotus,  who  was  called  the  father  of  history,  from  being  its  first  in- 
ventor, i.  e.  of  hibtory  as  separated  from  the  historic,  mythologic  enigmas. 
38.  We  will  now  consider  the  number  9. 

The  to  Teth  of  the  Hebrew  stands  for  nine.  I  have  no  doubt  that  we  have  this  letter  nearer  the 
original  in  form  in  the  Greek  ®  Theta,  a  circle  including  a  central  point,  though  the  Greek  Theta 
is  not  unlike  the  Teth  both  in  name  and  form.  This  has  the  same  name  as  the  Tha  or  Thas  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  the  $6a$  of  the  Copts.  It  is  called  the  everlasting  number,  because,  by  whatever 
number  it  is  multiplied,  if  the  figures  be  added,  they  make  9.  Thus  7x9=63,  and  6-f  3  -9  \  or  an 
equal  number  of  nines,  and  for  this  reason  it  has  the  emblem  of  eternity  for  its  figure,  viz.  a  point 
and  a  circle.  This  Tha  or  Thas  is  the  ninth  or  last  number  before  the  tens  begin.  The  Tzaddi  is 
the  90,  the  second  nine  before  the  hundreds  begin  ;  and  the  Tzaddi  final  is  the  third  9,  standing 
for  £00,  before  the  thousands  begin. 

If  the  reader  look  to  the  Irish  alphabets  in  my  Preliminary  Observations,  Chapter  I.  Sect.  xlvi. 
p.  9,  he  will  find  each  of  them  to  consist  of  seventeen  letters,  the  ninth  letter  in  each  is  the  centre 
letter 5  it  is  the  M.  In  the  first  it  is  called  Moiria,  that  is,  Maria;  and  in  the  second  it  is  called 
the  Muin=z666,  of  which  we  have  seen  and  said  so  much,2  Can  any  one  believe  this  to  have 
been  the  effect  of  accident  ?  And  if  it  be  not  accident,  can  any  one  doubt  that  it  is  the  effect  of  a 
secret  system,  and  of  the  very  system  which  I  have  been  unfolding  ? 

Georgius  shews  that  the  Pema  or  Lotus  is  the  Padraa  softened  to  Pema,  I  suppose  Padma  is 
Sanscrit  and  means  Pad,  one  of  the  names  of  Buddha,  and  Ma,  mother ;  the  same  as  Om,  the  male 
and  female  united  in  the  Lotus  flower.  The  word  Ma  or  the  M  with  a  vowel,  without  which  it 
cannot  be  sounded,  was,  as  I  have  stated,  the  old  word  for  mother  or  the  female  principle — the 
matrix ;  and,  on  this  account,  it  might  be  that  the  central  numeral  letter  of  the  alphabet  came  to 
have  the  name  of  M.  It  was  the  Ma  or  Om  figure,  and  thus  the  tree  figure  or  vine- tree  came  to 
be  called  MN,  or  Main,  or  666— M-vin  the  vin  of  M.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  Jews  of 
the  present  day  have  numerous  mysteries  attached  to  the  M  as  the  central  letter,  (many  more, 
probably,  than  I  am  acquainted  with,)  so  that  this  is  not  merely  a  theory,  A  moment's  inspection 
she^s  that  the  Arabic  alphabet  was  constructed  without  any  regard  to  the  mythos.  Mystery 

1  See  Basnage,  p.  199.  s  Vol.  L  pp,  174,  2/3,  659,  £c ,  ulso  supra,  p,  180, 


BOOK   III.    CHAPTER    I.   SECTION    18. 


187 


itself  is  a  mythos,  as  1  have  shewn — M-istory — perhaps,  I-story — om — the  Story  of  Om.  This  was 
correctly  the  case  with  all  early  history.1  But  it  is  quite  clear  to  me  that  after  the  Hebrews  had 
adopted  the  first  sixteen  letters,  the  others  were  added,  without  any  regard  to  the  wants  of  the 
language,  as  a  moment's  examination  will  shew.  For  what,  then,  could  it  be,  but  to  humour  this 
mythos  ? — partly,  perhaps,  out  of  regard  to  the  Moon's  cycle  of  twenty-seven  days,  partly  to 
make  the  M  the  central  letter  $  for,  without  the  contrivance  of  the  final  letters,  it  would  not 
answer.  The  final  letters  are  not  indispensably  necessary,  as  most  of  the  letters  do  without  the 
finals.  The  Arabians  kept  all  their  numbers  for  letters,  but  it  is  evident  that  if  they  had  been 
composed  to  serve  the  purpose  of  letters,  they  would  not  have  had  three  letters  T,  or  three  letters 
S.  I  have  before  shewn  that  it  seems  probable  that  the  Greeks  at  one  time  had  the  same  number 
of  numeral  letters  as  the  Hebrews,  or  letters  having  the  same  power  of  notation  $  but  that  they 
purposely  contrived  to  leave  out  the  Koph,  in  order  that  they  might  have  the  two  centre  letters 
for  their  monogram  of  Bacchus,  Mn— 650,  eleven  letters  on  each  side.  One  effect  of  this  would  be 
to  make  the  last  three  letters  of  their  proper  old  alphabet  have  each,  in  succeeding  times,  two 
numeral  powers.2  I  have  taken  great  pains  to  prove,  and  I  am  certain  I  have  proved,  that  the 
last  three  letters  of  the  alphabet  had  each  two  numeral  meanings.  Here  we  have  a  satisfactory 
explanation  of  the  mode  by  which  that  effect  was  produced  in  the  Greek.  After  they  had  given 
names  to  gods  or  things,  from  the  symbols  having  the  original  powers  of  notation,  they  would 
never  be  able  entirely  to  destroy  these  first  names  and  substitute  new  ones.  If  new  ones  were 
given,  it  is  evident  that  both  would  continue. 

Man  in  Sanscrit  means  a  human  being;  in  Chaldaeo- Hebrew,  intelligence.3 
Mani  is  always  called  Mane :  now  this  will  give  us  nearly  the  numerical  name. 

M=eoo 

N=  50 


1=  10 
Er:    5 

666 


or 


M=600     >i 

M=600 

H=    8    -i 

N=  50 

1=  10 

M=600 

1=  10 

N=  50 

— 

fA=    1 

>     U=    6 

608 

LE=    5 

666 

666     - 

> 

Persian  Hour. 


— Mani — Pami  or  Pema — Oin.  One  is  nothing  but  the  M=6QO.  Mani  is  Numa  or  Minos 
or  Menu.  We  have  seen  how  the  Nu  is  m  Nh  or  Noah,4  and  I  believe  it  is  the  NH— Mn 
650. 5 

We  constantly  read  of  the  Son  of  Man.  I  have  often  wondered  why  a^  human  being  should  be 
so  called.  I  have  little  doubt  that  by  this  was  meant,  Son  of  the  Solar  Incarnation,  Mn. 

Man  was  the  image  of  God,  of  the  being  described  by  the  number  650;  in  short,  he  was  the 
microcosm  of  God,  Mind  was  Sapientiaj  and  this  was  only  to  be  made  perceptible  by  one  man 
to  another  by  means  of  the  Logos  or  speech.  Thus  mind  came  to  be  described  by  the  word 
Logos,  the  speech  or  anima  in  motion,  the  spirit  of  God,  of  which  the  Linga  was  the  emblem.  The 
organ  of  generation,  for  a  similar  reason,  was  called  Linga,  or  Lingua,  language,  or  speech,  or  Logos. 
Mind  was  the  To  O.  "  Every  thing  tends  to  the  To  Of" — "  to  the  centre."  For  this  reason, 


*  Vol.  I.  p.  882,  n.    See  'Iro^a,  clr»p,  and  Italian  Storm. 

*  Volney,  Res.  Ant,  Hist,  Vol.  IL  p.  403.  4  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  234,  236,  420,  626,  649,  714. 

*  Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  that  when  I  speak  of  these  matters,  I  suppose  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  letters  to  be  the  same 
or  nearly  so— not  yet  to  have  changed. 

2B2 


188  T&E  NUMBER 

when  the  alphabet  consisted  of  only  twenty-four  letters  or  figures,  the  two  centre  letters,  the 
MNir6509  formed  its  name.  The  name  of  that  part  of  the  Horn  or  Homo,  which  more  immediately 
partook  of  the  nature  of  the  To  Ov,  mind  and  man-mm-di,  viz.  divus,  holy  or  sacred,  that  is, 
MN.  After  the  sacred  number,  the  Neros  was  found  to  be  600  and  not  650,  the  number  of  the 
letters  TV  as  reduced  from  28  to  27,  and  the  M=600  was  the  sacred  number. l  When  this  was  the 
case,  it  is  evident  that  those  who  did  not  understand  all  the  reasoning  might  take  either  the  LM  or 
the  MN  for  their  sacred  number  650.  Thus  came  the  Lama  and  the  merca.  Thus  the  Lamed 
came  to  be  used  indiscriminately  with  the  Nun,  as  Ficinus  tells  us.  And  thus,  as  we  might 
expect,  Lama,  Menu,  and  Mani,  were  all  the  same.  The  Lamed  is,  in  fact,  the  LM-di,  Holy  or 
Sacred  Lama. 

At  last,  the  Lama  came  to  have  the  same  name  as  the  sheep,  as  the  solar  constellation,  and  as 
"  the  Lamb  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,"  because,  in  the  language  of  figures,  it  was 
was  Ln50,  M—  600—650.  For  a  similar  reason  the  Goat,  which  was  the  same  as  the  Lamb,  was 
called  Mn-des,  M-600,  Nzz50~650. 

The  Indian  Fig-tree  was  sacred  to  the  Sun.2  It  was  the  tree  of  the  Lam  5  then,  from  the  re- 
giiniiic,  the  tree  Lam-di. 

The  reader  may  probably  recollect  the  observations  which  I  made  in  Volume  I.  pp.  606,  837, 
838,  that  the  Goat  and  the  Sheep  are  the  same  genus  of  animal,  and  that  they  will  breed  forward, 
or  continue  the  bieed,  like  the  Greyhound  and  the  Pointer,  not  like  the  Horse  and  the  Ass.  This 
accounts  for  the  Goat  being  often  found  where  a  Sheep  might  be  expected.  At  last  the  two  ani- 
mals came  to  be  equally  adored,  one  as  LM=650,  the  other  as  MNz:650. 

Parkhurst  says,  jniD  mndo,  knowledge,  understanding.3  From  this  root  in*  ido9  probably,  comes 
the  name  of  the  Docetes.  He  says,  run  dot,  knowledge.4  I  believe  it  was  one  name  of  the 
Gnostics,  and  from  this  probably  came  the  Latin  Doctus*  We  have  found  munda  to  mean  a  cycle 
or  circle.  I  suspect  this  arose  from  the  figurative  similitude  of  the  divine  mind  to  the  circle  which 
we  meet  with  every  where,  to  the  0,  To  O ;  and  that  man  had  this  name  from  being  an  emana- 
tion from  the  divine  mind.  From  the  word  jn»  ido  comes  the  word  idea,  which  is  so  closely  con- 
nected with  understanding,  knowledge,  and  mind.  And  thus  the  mounts  Ida,  of  Crete  and  Troy, 
or  Tr-ia,  might,  with  little  or  perhaps  no  violence,  be  construed  mounts  of  knowledge  or  wisdom. 

The  lod  has  the  meaning  of  hand  and  ten,  and  may  be  the  root  of  the  word  loda  or  Juda,  It  is 
the  jri*  ido  of  the  Hebrews,  which  means  to  think,  and  figuratively  knowledge,  Wisdom,  in  fact, 
uur  Idea.  When  a  man  has  no  ideas  he  has  no  wisdom.  We  have  before  seen  the  close  connex- 
ion of  letters  and  knowledge.  Here,  I  think,  we  may  find  the  meaning  of  Ayodia— -the  place  of 
wisdom.  The  tribe  of  Judea  may  be  nothing  but  the  tribe  of  Judia  or  Idii.  The  Idei  of  Crete  were 
AOXTWXOI,  Dactyli,  as  the  learned  say,  because  they  were  ten,  the  number  of  a  person's  fingers. 
I  apprehend  they  might  also  be  so  called  from  the  lodi  or  Idaei,  that  is,  votaries,  or  the  inventors 
or  possessors  of  the  system  of  letters,  and  also  from  the  word  lod  a  hand.  We  have  here  several 
meanings  similar  to  what  we  found  in  the  Tamul.  From  the  Hebrew  word  jn*  wfo,  Idea,  the  ideas 
of  letteis,  knowledge,  wisdom,  head,  cannot  be  separated.  The  French  T4te  is  Tat,  Ras,  head. 

»  Thus,  when  it  was  desired  to  retain  the  allegory  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  and  letters  in  the  alphabetic  numeral 
system,  and  the  mansions  of  the  moon  and  the  days  of  the  moon's  period  were  found  to  be  more  correctly  described  by 
27,  the  letters  were  reduced  to  27. 

«  Vail.  Coll  Hib.  Vol.  V.  p.  130.  3  jn  voce  ^  id0y  VJL  p.  274. 

<  Ibid  p.  273,  In  a  future  page  we  shall  find  the  language  of  Scotland  called  Gael-doet.  The  latter  word  came  to 
Scotland  with  the  Jewish  abstinence  from  Pork,  and  was  derived  from  this  word,  meaning  learned  Gael,  or  Sanctum 
Scriptum. 


BOOK    III.    CHAPTER    I.    SECTION    18.  189 

The  Cretans  of  Mount  Ida  were  said,  by  the  Greeks,  to  be  Jews.  They  probably  constituted  the 
monastic  body,  the  remains  of  which  still  continue  as  Christian  monks  on  Mount  Ida.1 

Virgil  seems  to  have  known  the  true  nature  of  this  mythos  from  an  expression  in  the  ^Eneid, 
Lib.  x. — 

Alma  parens  Idasa  Deum. 

This  Idaea  was  the  Maia  of  Greece*  Proclus,  upon  Plato,  uses  the  expression,  MaTa  &scov  wary  : 
Maia,  the  Sovereign  or  Supreme  of  the  Gods.2 

We  know  certainly  that,  after  the  use  of  the  numeral  symbols  as  letters  commenced,  the  custom 
of  using  them  as  symbols  did  not  cease  5  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  were  continued  in  com- 
mon use  for  superstitious  purposes  by  the  early  fathers  ;  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine,  that,  after  the 
numeral  powers  of  the  Coptic  and  Greek  letters  became  changed,  the  Gods  should,  in  some  in- 
stances, be  called,  or  rather  be  described,  by  the  symbols  in  their  new  application.  For  instance, 
that  what  before  was  *)n  tr  should  become  5P=600.  And,  again,  T5P  and  XSP,  I  think 
each  of  the  letters  P2JT  came  to  have  two  meanings.  All  this  might  readily  aribe  in  the  infancy 
of  letter  writing,  and  during  the  gradual  cessation  of  symbol  writing.  I  think  the  very  easy 
manner  in  which  the  unmeaning  names  of  the  Gods  resolve  themselves  into  numbers,  and  those  the 
precise  numbers  which  are  required  to  describe  the  sacred  cycle,  as  it  advanced  to  perfection,  and 
the  way  in  which  they  are  recorded  in  the  numbers  of  pillars  in  the  temples,  and  the  way  iu  which, 
as  I  have  shewn,  they  were  used  to  make  up  the  periods  of  the  Hebrew  chronology,  as  taught  by 
Usher,  Marsham,  and  Eusebius  5  and  the  way  in  which  the  monograms  descriptive  of  Jesus 
Christ  are  formed  of  the  numbers  of  the  three  cycles,  leave  nothing  wanting  to  the  proof  of  the 
truth  of  my  explanation  of  the  system.  The  probabilities  are  as  a  million  to  one  in  favour  of  its 
truth. 

It  should  also  be  recollected,  that  we  are  not  to  be  tied  down  in  our  reasoning  respecting  the 
meanings  of  symbols  and  letters  in  the  first  years  of  their  invention,  in  the  same  strict  manner  as 
we  ought  to  be,  when  we  reason  about  those  of  the  fastidious  Greeks,  at  the  time  when  they  had 
brought  their  beautiful  alphabet  to  perfection,  and  fixed,  with  great  precision,  the  power  of  every 
letter. 

The  attempts  to  tie  clown  inquirers  into  the  early  periods  of  Greece,  or  any  other  country,  to 
the  strict  grammatical  rules  adopted  or  formed  iu  later  times,  when  these  countries  had  become 
highly  civilized  and  their  language  fixed  by  these  grammatical  rules,  can  only  serve,  if  permitted, 
to  conceal  truth.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  the  ancient  languages  different  from  the  modern 
with  respect  to  their  uncertainty;  and  how  uncertain  are  they!  The  following  passage  of  Sir 
John  Mauncleville,  a  learned  Englishman  in  the  fourteenth  century,  will  shew  in  how  short  a  time 
even  a  written  language  changes  :  "Aftre  that  thei  ben  zolden  (yielded)  thei  sleen  hem  alle,  and 
"  kutten  of  hire  eres,  and  soween  hem  in  vynegre,  and  there  of  thei  maken  gret  servyse  for 
"  Lordes."  Similar  examples  may  be  found  in  every  language. 

I  must  also  beg  my  reader  not  to  be  surprised  if  he  should  find  several  etymologies  for  a  word. 
He  must  recollect  that  I  pretend  to  prove  nothing,  only  to  raise  different  degrees  of  probability  in. 
each  case;  and  when  I  give  two  explanations,  the  reader  may  take  which  he  chooses;  I  believe  he 
will  find  either  of  them  consistent  with  the  remainder  of  the  theory.  But  I  think  it  probable  that, 
in  many  cases,  words  were  designedly  so  formed  as  to  have  several  meanings.  It  must  also  be 
recollected,  that  the  meanings  of  words  would  change  with  time. 

'  For  lod  hand,  see  Ouseley's  Coll.  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  62,  105,  418.  8  Jurieu,  Vol.  II.  p.  91. 


190  ARABIC  LETTERS, 

19.  After  man  began  to  theorize  on  the  First  Cause,  he  naturally  designated  it  by  the  Monad  or 
Unit,  which  was  at  length  described  by  a  point :  on  this  arose  many  most  refined  speculations.  It 
was  on  the  Monad,  on  which  was  erected  all  the  other  numbers,  till  we  get  to  ten ;  the  whole  of 
the  fingers  which  formed  one  circle  or  whole,  as  it  contained  in  itself  all  numbers.  Then,  by  the 
invention  of  adding  the  other  numbers  over  again,  all  numbers  are  formed.  Thus  the  point  came 
to  be  the  foundation  of  both  series,  and  the  •  or  pruktos,  or  prick,  or  point,  >  or  jod,  to  be 
descriptive  of  self-existence,  and  of  both  one  and  ten,  and  from  this  in  time  might  arise  the 
Hebrew  verb  n»n  eie,  to  le  or  exist;  with  its  irregular  forms,  and  its  >  i  existence  and  n>  ie,  or, 
SyriacS,  y>  io9  joined  to  >T  cK,  "TV  iud,  and  the  people  of  lo-di,  the  holy  Io$  and,  Chaldaic£,  N1V  iuda, 
and  God  self-existent,  thus  formed  from  the  root  •  the  Ailm,  on  which  all  letters  and  numbers 
were  carried  or  formed,  and  consequently  all  knowledge.  Thus  it  was  the  creator,  and  the  foun- 
dation or  mother  of  figures,  letters,  and  knowledge :  from  this,  the  ledi  of  Judi  were  the  followers 
of  the  holy  I,  or  le,  or  lo.  From  this  being  the  origin  of  letters  as  well  as  of  creation,  the  golden 
fleece  (holy  wisdom)  and  the  apple  of  the  Hesperides,  apples  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  holy  wis- 
dom came. 

The  first  figure  would,  of  course,  be  what  we  find  it,  I :  when  it  got  to  ten  it  was  X  or  >  in 
Hebrew,  that  is,  lod— lo-di— the  sacred  lo  in  the  Syriac,  or  IT  ih  in  the  Hebrew,  translated  into 
the  Greek  IH  of  Delphi,  or  the  XH—608.  Jesus  Christ,  Basnage  says,  was  described  by  IH. 
This  shews  that  the  31  of  Delphi  was  written  both  HI  and  31.  In  several  of  the  old  languages 
the  first  number  is  described  thus, 1,  and  the  tenth,  in  the  same  manner;  and  sometimes  both  by  a 
point.  This  is  the  Hebrew  lod,  and  the  Latin  Iota.  This  is,  I  apprehend,  the  To  Ov  of  Plato, 
lod  is  hand,  and  also,  in  Hebrew,  the  Ivy,  which  is  called  the  five-finger-leaved  tree,  and  the  Planta- 
vita,  * 

In  the  Dalmatian  or  Illyrian  alphabet,  the  form  of  the  I  is  X ;  and  this,  I  cannot  doubt,  was 
originally  the  Roman,  and  the  I  or  j  was  the  ninth)  and  the  X  the  tenth*  The  small  variations  in 
the  alphabets  shew,  I  think,  that  they  have  in  most  countries  got  into  use  by  degrees ;  escaped, 
in  fact,  from  the  crypts,  before  any  thing  like  grammar  was  thought  of. 

Duret  says,  "  Que  Dien  est  le  chef  de  toutes  les  choses,  tant  de  celles  qui  sont9  que  des  autres  gut 
"  doivent  estre  et  ne  sont  encore.  Aussi  ceste  note  de  nullite  0,  qui  est  circulaire  et  resoluble  en 
"  soy  mesine.  Sans  fin,  et  commencement,  ne  fait  rien  de  soy,  mais  avec  Vunite'  constitu6  le 
"  nombre  de  10.  Et  de-la  se  va  niultipliant  en  la  cornpagnie  des  autres,  jusques  &  Pinfini."8  Or, 
it  may  be  the  Jewish  and  British  and  Indian  cycle  of  84 — I— 10,  0—70,  D:z4— 84.  But  I  rather 
prefer  the  former.  From  this  numerical  theory,  the  lo  of  Syria,  arose  the  Jewish  irregular  verb 
n*H  to  be.  As  the  i.  d,  or  10  and  4,  made  the  half  of  the  moon,  when  the  year  was  supposed  to  be 
336  days  long;  so  the  n>  Le.  or  10  and  5,  made  the  half  when  the  year  was  supposed  to  be  360 
days  long. 

The  *  lod  is  the  tenth  letter  of  the  old  alphabet  of  figures,  the  D  mem  is  the  tenth  of  the  new 
one  of  letters. 

The  sacred  tetragrammaton  might  be  either  mn>  ieue,  or  '0  ft>v5  »ai  6  yv,  xai  o  ep;£oju,svo£ ;  or 
it  might  be,  rrrrK  aeies  which  comprehends  them  all. 

I  apprehend  the  origin  of  notation,  or  of  figures  or  arithmetic,  is  very  fairly  represented  in  the 
Preliminary  Observations,  and  the  beginning  of  this  book.  We  will  now  try  to  find  how  the  Ara- 
bic system  was  discovered,  or  I  had,  perhaps,  better  say,  how  the  systems  of  calculation,  by  calculi 
or  cowries,  or  right  lines,  was  perfected.  For,  though  I  have  spoken  of  calculi  or  little  stones 

'  Vail.  Coll.  Hib.  Vol.  V.  p.  131.  •  Origin  des  Langues,  p,  159, 


BOOK   III.   CHAPTER    I,   SECTION    19.  191 

only,  yet  I  apprehend  the  African  and  Indian  and  Chinese  custom  of  using  little  shells  or  cowries, 
and  which  are  yet  used  in  all  the  oriental  countries,  soon  came  into  use  instead  of  the  calculi.  I 
suppose  that  man,  after  a  certain  experience  of  the  use  of  lines  or  cowries  for  numbers,  proceeded 
to  invent  arbitrary  figures  for  each  parcel  of  lines  or  cowries,  and  thus  he  made  a  2  for  two 
cowries  or  lines,  a  3  for  three,  and  a  9  for  nine  of  them ;  each  of  these  parcels  answering  to  a  part 
of  his  fingers,  and  the  9  to  nine  of  them.  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  the  forming  of  all  these  sym- 
bols, fanciful  or  mystical  reasons  would  influence  the  formation  of  them,  and  when  he  came  to  the 
last  finger  or  digit,  and  he  cast  about  to  determine  what  sort  of  a  figure  he  should  make  for  it, — 
for  it,  which  was  the  total  of  the  fingers, — he  formed  the  sign  of  the  circle  as,  in  his  opinion,  the 
most  proper;  and  this  it  really  was,  for  many  reasons,  so  evident,  that  I  suppose  I  need  not 
repeat  them.  Thus  he  got  the  1,  2,  3,  4,  to  9  and  0.  When  he  examined  this,  he  would  find 
that  he  had  one  total.  He  laid  his  cowries  or  inscribed  his  lines  one  below  another,  and  he  found 
if  he  took  three  of  them  thus, 

i 

1 

1 

they  made  3......    3 

and  four  would  in  like  manner  make  4.  If  he  took  ten  of  them,  in  like  manner  they  made  10  or  0. 
That  i&,  they  made  one  0,  or  one  total,  that  is,  1.  0,  This  brought  him  instantly  to  simple  addi- 
tion, as  far  as  to  nine  figures,  and  perhaps  to  ten.  He  would  observe  that  the  one  total,  or  10, 
was  descriptive  of  all  the  cowries  he  had  in  his  hand,  and  that  the  figures  on  the  right  described 
ones  answering  to  his  fingers  or  digits,  and  the  next  figure  on  the  left  ten  digits.  He  then 
took  two  parcels  of  cowries  of  ten  each,  and  he  said, 

If  one  of  these  parcels  is  described  by  one  total.  ....,.«<»».,. ,     1  0, 

two  of  these  parcels  ought  to  be  described  by  two  totals  . , , , 2  0, 

that  three  might  be  described  by  three  totals. ..,.».,, . ,    3  0, 

and  so  on  till  he  got  to  nine  totals  ,,,» *,.....,,. 9  0, 

and,  at  last,  that  a  hundred  cowries  would  be  described  by  ten  totals,  thus. „  10  0. 

This  would  immediately  shew,  that  the  first  number  on  the  right  described  digits,  the  next  on  the 
left  tens,  and  the  next  on  the  left,  parcels  of  ten  tens  each,  In  the  above  we  have  the  sums-— ten, 
twenty,  thirty,  &c. 

About  the  same  time  that  man  got  so  far  as  to  form  the  10,  and  to  describe  the  sums  20, 30, 40, 
&c.,  he  would  observe,  if  one  and  a  circle,  made  one  total,1  and  that  the  one  in  the  second  line  to 
the  left  always  answered  to  ten,  that,  if  instead  of  the  1  and  0,  he  put  1  and  1,  he  would  describe 
the  eleven  cowries,  which  he  had  in  his  hand;  and  if  he  put  1  and  2,  he  would  describe  the 
twelve  cowries  which  he  had  in  his  hand;  and  hence  he  discovered  how  to  describe  11, 12,  13, 
&c.,  to  20,  or  two  totals.  In  this  manner,  again,  he  was  led  to  discover,  that  the  first  line  on  the 
right  was  digits,  the  second  to  the  left  tens,  the  third  to  the  left,  parcels  of  ten  tens,  or  what  we 
call  hundreds.  After  this,  I  think  the  mode  in  which  man  would  proceed  with  the  combined  as- 
sistance of  his  cowries  and  figures,  to  underwrite  the  number  of  the  odd  digits  on  the  right,  carry- 


i  The  word  Total,  which  I  have  made  use  of,  is  al-tat ;  the  tat  or  tot  meaning